GRAFTON 


UBRARY'OF  PRlNCEfON 


OCT    9  2003 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


1912. 

Pusey  and  the  church  reviva 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/puseychurchrevivOOgraf_0 


EDWARD  BOUVEllIE  PUSEY,  D.D. 

(Erom  a  portrait  by  ^Nliss  Rosa  Corder.) 

(Reproduced  from  Vol.  I.,  Life  of  J'lisvi/,  published  by  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co. 


FUSE  Y 

AND  THE  CHVKCH  REVIVAL 


BY  THE 

RT.  REV.  CHAS.  CHAPMAN  GRAFTON,  D.D. 


Bishop  of  Fond  du  L^lC 

LIBRARY  OF  PRiNCET! 

UCI    9  ■-■^ 

THEOLOGICAL  SEM!N/ 

\RY 

Mllwavikee 
^Ae  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  CO. 
1902 


copyright  by 
The  Young  Churchman  Co. 
1902. 


PRELUDE. 


The  energy  that  vivifies  tlie  cosmos  is  obviously 
intelligent.  It  must  be  self-conscious  or  it  would 
be  less  than  what  it  produces.  Self-conscious  in- 
telligence is  a  personal  intelligence.  The  universe 
is  a  revelation  of  that  personal  intelligence. 

Man  is  part  of  the  universe.  Religion  arises 
from  the  correspondence  of  man's  nature  with  its 
environment,  and  its  environment  is  God. 

The  action  of  our  mental  powers  reveals  them 
to  be  in  connection  with  Mind  greater  than  their 
own.  One  proof  is  this:  the  reason  is  automat- 
ically obliged  to  act  on  assumptions  of  causation 
and  universality  of  law  which  it  cannot  prove. 

Man's  nature,  mental  and  spiritual,  not  by 
fears  alone  but  by  its  aspirations  cries  out  to 
God.  If  God  made  not  an  intelligible  response  or 
further  revelation  of  Himself  the  universe  would 
not  only  be  unexplainable  but  immoral. 

By  a  gradual  and  progressive  revelation  of 
Himself  God  makes  Himself  known.  Inwardly 


4 


PRELUDE. 


to  man's  mind  and  conscience  and  spirit.  Out- 
wardly througli  poet  and  philosopher  and  seer  and 
prophet. 

Ever  by  the  two  concurring  witnesses  of  author- 
ity and  reason  doth  He  teach.    They  act  together. 

"Two  like  the  brain 

Whose  halves  ne'er  think  apart, 
But  beat  and  answer 
To  one  loving  heart." 

Outwardly,  not  through  individuals  only  but 
through  chosen  family  and  elect  nation  and  or- 
ganized institutions.  By  guarded  word  and  sym- 
bol and  rite  the  ancient  treasure  is  preserved  from 
age  to  age. 

"Tradition  streameth  through  our  race, 
Most  like  the  gentle  whispering  air. 
To  which  of  old  Elias  veiled  his  face, 
Conscious  that  God  was  there." 

But  not  like  a  dead,  dull  coin  is  the  treasure 
passed  from  age  to  age,  but  rather  like  a  jewel 
that  reflects  new  glories  with  the  brightening  day. 
So  ever  with  increasing  splendor  the  great  dawn 
Cometh  when  God  reveals  Himself  in  Christ.  Then 
the  sphinx  gets  answer  to  its  question.  Then 
the  mystery  hidden  for  ages  is  revealed  and  God 
becomes  manifest  in  our  flesh.    Christ  is  the  con- 


PEELUDE. 


5 


summated  Eevelation  of  God  to  man.  "By  Him 
were  all  things  created  vrliicli  are  in  heaven  and 
that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  and  He  is 
before  all  things  and  by  Him  all  things  consist  and 
He  is  the  Head  of  the  body  the  Church.'' 

First,  man  is  united  to  God  by  the  tie  of  crea- 
tion. '^We  are  His  offspring."  "Tn  Him  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being."  This  is  our  first 
mode  of  union  with  God.  It  comes  from  God's 
Immanence  in  Xature.  Alas,  that  many  in  their 
conception  of  God  stop  with  this. 

With  the  Gospel  a  new  order  arises.  The  divine 
purpose  further  unfolds  itself.  A  new  relation  is 
established  between  God  and  creation.  God  be- 
comes Incarnate.  The  chasm  between  the  finite 
and  the  infinite  is  closed.  God  and  man  are  united 
in  one  person.  He  enters  the  universe  at  the  point 
of  our  planet  to  benefit  the  whole  of  it.  In  Christ 
a  new  creation  is  thus  begun.  It  is  the  Church, 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  He  is  the  Head  of  it.  And 
what  Almighty  God  is  to  the  first  or  material  crea- 
tion, being  by  His  immanence  its  life  principle, 
that  the  God-Man  is  to  this  new  spiritual  creation. 
United  by  grace  to  His  Humanity  and  made  par- 
takers of  it,  we  are  in  a  new  way  united  to  God. 


6 


PEELTTDE. 


It  is  the  way  that  secures  something  more  than  Im- 
mortality— Eternal  Life. 

How  gives  He  this  to  us  ? 

The  new  ever  rises  from  out  the  old.  Coming 
not  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil  it,  He  built  His 
Church  on  the  old  foundation  God  had  already 
laid.  So  under  the  Spirit's  guidance  the  three  or- 
ders of  the  Christian  ministry  rose  on  the  ancient 
three-fold  order  of  high  priest,  priest,  and  levite. 
The  Christian  feasts  took  the  place  of  the  Jewish. 
The  Christian  year  of  the  Hebrew  one.  The  grace 
endowed  sacraments  succeeded  to  the  Jewish  signs 
and  ordinances.  The  Synagogue  liturgical  ser- 
vice became  extended  in  our  divine  offices.  The 
sacrifices  of  the  Temple  were  consolidated  in  the 
one  pure  spiritual  Eucharistic  Sacrifice.  The 
water  was  turned  into  wine ! 

The  process  followed  the  law  of  preparation. 
"Prepare  thy  work  without  and  make  it  fit  for  thy- 
self in  the  field  and  so  come  to  build  thy  house." 

Before  Pentecost  Christ  was  engaged  in  the 
preliminary  work  of  erecting  the  new  Temple. 
His  work  during  this  period  was  only  preparatory. 
His  teaching  but  partial.  "I  have  many  things 
to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 


PEELUDE. 


7 


He  was  but  gathering  His  disciples  and  conunis- 
eioning  His  Apostles  by  successive  acts  to  be  His 
future  representatives  and  agents.  He  was  grad- 
ually and  by  degrees  gathering  them  into  fellow- 
ship with  His  prophetical,  priestly,  and  kingly 
offices. 

Before  Pentecost  the  Church  was  like  the  body 
of  Adam  ere  God  breathed  into  it  the  Breath  of 
life.  It  was  as  yet  like  Solomon's  unconsecrated 
Temple  not  filled  with  the  Spirit.  At  Pente- 
cost the  Holy  Spirit,  yet  not  leaving  the  Divine 
Humanity  in  which  without  measure  He  dwelt, 
filled  the  Temple.  He  entered  it  to  dwell  in  it  and 
has  never  left  it.  He  filled  it  and  by  His  abiding 
Presence  made  it  a  living  Temple.  Christ  also 
dwells  in  it  and  it  is  a  living  shrine  of  an  Ever 
Present  and  Living  Lord.  It  is  the  beginning  of 
that  new  creation  which  is  to  last  for  eternity. 

Christ  in  His  now  mediatorial  reign  at  the 
Bight  Hand  of  power  no  longer  prays  for  the 
world.  His  work  for  the  race  as  such  is  done. 
"It  is  finished." 

He  says  "I  pray  not  for  the  world,"  but  in  and 
for  His  Church.  For  from  His  Church  the  Light 
streams  forth  into  the  world, and  by  His  prevenient 


8 


PEELUDE. 


grace  souls  are  converted  and  brought  into  it  as  the 
ark  of  safety,  into  union  with  Him  through  His 
Body,  the  Church.  Out  of  it  none  have  a  cove- 
nanted share  in  His  redemptive  work  or  priestly 
intercession. 

The  Church,  indwelt  by  the  Spirit,  is  the  organ 
of  Christ  and  speaks  and  acts  with  His  authority. 
It  speaks  to  the  living  stones  or  members  of  the 
living  Temple.  It  speaks,  however,  not  to  their 
natural  reason,  but  to  their  reason  and  conscience 
illuminated  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  they  within 
the  Church  hear  and  know  His  Voice,  as  they  can- 
not do  who  are  without.  Their  faith  is  not  a 
barren  one  resting  in  Creeds  or  authority  alone, 
but  is  a  living  faith  which  unites  them  to  a  living 
Lord  in  whom  they  believe  and  whom  by  tested  ex- 
perience they  come  to  know.  Christ  in  them 
is  the  hope  of  glory.  They  are  in  Him  and 
so  are  saved  by  Him.  He  is  in  them  and  they 
are  re-made  by  Him.  Their  ideal  of  character  is 
not  the  mere  pagan  one,  of  purity,  strength,  cour- 
age, beauty,  endurance,  or  mere  cardinal  or  social 
virtues.  It  is  the  Christian  ideal  of  Christ  and 
the  Beatitudes.  'Ror  do  they  seek  to  copy  Christ 
as  an  external  model.    But  Christ  dwells  in  them 


PRELUDE. 


9 


and  within  unfolds  His  own  life  and  makes  them 
like  HimseK. 

We  are  living  in  the  latter  Times.  When  the 
spiritual  Temple  is  complete,  when  the  Body  of 
the  Bride  is  fully  formed,  then  the  purpose  of  this 
world  will  be  accomplished  and  our  Lord  and  King 
Jesus  Christ  will  come. 

A  deep  revival  is  taking  place  in  our  Church. 
Angels  and  saints  are  intently  watching  the  out- 
come. Shall  we  not  have  part  in  it  ?  What  shall 
it  be? 


PVSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 


The  Church  was  planted  in  Britain  in  very 
early  times.  It  met  with  reverses  and  almost  de- 
struction at  the  hands  of  the  Saxons  and  Danes; 
was  strengthened  by  the  coming  of  the  Monk  Au- 
gustine in  596;  became  consolidated  under  the 
great  Archbishop  Theodore ;  was  brought  in  closer 
connection  with  the  Roman  See  at  the  time  of  the 
ISTorman  Conquest ;  came  fully  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Papacy  as  its  power  culminated  under  Hil- 
debrand  and  Innocent  III. ;  was  aroused  by  the 
voice  of  Wyckliffe  to  the  struggle  for  its  ancient 
rights ;  passed  through  its  struggle  with  the  Papacy 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  maintaining  the  continu- 
ity of  its  organization,  its  holy  orders,  and  its  in- 
herited Catholic  Paith ;  emerged  from  the  contest 
with  Puritanism  in  the  seventeenth  century;  and 
then,  fortifying  its  Prayer  Book  with  more  em- 
phatic statements  of  Catholic  doctrine  in  1662, 
completed  the  work  of  the  Reformation. 


12  PUSEY  AXD  THE   CHUECH  REVIVAL. 

During  all  this  period  we  can  but  note  the  lov- 
ing Providence  of  God,  watching  over  and  develop- 
ing the  Church,  purifying  it  by  its  trials  and  suf- 
ferings and  preparing  it,  freighted  as  it  is  with 
the  balanced  wisdom  of  the  ages  and  with  all  the 
endowments  and  ministries  of  grace,  for  its  devel- 
opment throughout  the  world,  opening  now  under 
advancing  civilization  to  Christianity  as  never 
before  since  the  days  of  Constantine. 

It  will  not  be  uninstructive  to  review  together 
that  remarkable  development  of  spiritual  life 
which  took  place  in  the  Church  of  England  during 
the  nineteenth  century;  a  movement  which  has 
so  transformed  and  vivified  her  anew  with  spir- 
itual life  as  to  seem  like  a  revival  of  those  early 
days  when  the  Church  was  trembling  under  the 
Divine  afflatus  of  her  lately  received  Pentecostal 
gifts. 

I. 

In  order  that  we  may  more  fairly  estimate  this 
work  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  in  our  Communion, 
we  would  first  call  attention  to  the  condition 
of  the  English  Church  in  the  century  that  pre- 
ceded it.  We  find  the  Church  in  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  to  quote  from  the  historian, 


PUSEY  ATs'D  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  13 

Wakeman,  full  of  vigorous  endeavor,  secure  in  her 
position,  bright  with  hopefulness.  Her  great 
theologians.  Hooker,  Andrewes,  Laud,  Overall  and 
Montague,  had  discriminated  and  vindicated  her 
position  as  against  Papalism  and  Puritanism. 
"The  writings  of  George  Herbert,  and  Donne  and 
Crashaw  and  Jeremy  Taylor  had  proved  that  the 
fairest  flowers  of  devout  literature  could  spring 
from  the  garden  of  her  faith.  The  lives  of  holy 
IN'icolas  Ferrar,  and  Bishops  Juxon,  Gunning  and 
Ken  show  that  a  special  type  of  restrained  devo- 
tion, second  to  none  in  reality  and  sacrifice,  was 
attainable  by  her  children.  The  trials  which  she 
had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Cromwell  and  of 
James  II.  witnessed  to  her  steadfastness  and  tested 
her  reality.''  It  was  at  this  time  the  great 
Christian  Society,  the  Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  was  founded,  and  her  foreign 
missionary  work  begun. 

But  with  the  accession,  in  1714,  of  George  I., 
and  the  coming  into  power  of  the  Whig  party,  a 
change  came  over  the  Church.  Most  active  meas- 
ures were  taken  to  cripple  the  Church's  activity. 
For  eleven  centuries  the  Church  had  met  together 
for  deliberation  and  legislative  action  in  Convo- 


14  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EERIVAL. 

cation.  From  1718  to  1850  convocation  was  prac- 
tically suspended.  The  living  voice  of  the  Church 
was  thus  suppressed.  The  erection  of  fifty  new 
churches,  voted  by  Parliament  in  Queen  Anne^a 
reign,  was  changed  by  the  action  of  the  King  and 
only  twelve  were  erected.  Since  the  Eestoration, 
most  of  the  practical  activity  of  the  Church  had 
been  the  work  of  high  Churchmen,  and  the  sup- 
pression of  high  Churchmanship  practically 
meant  the  suppression  of  religious  energy.  The 
plan  of  appointing  four  Bishops  for  the  American 
Colonies  was  shelved.  As  the  century  advanced, 
the  lower  condition  of  the  spiritual  life  is  discern- 
ible. The  saintly  line  of  the  Carolinian  Bishops 
had  given  place  to  the  classical  scholars  of  the 
Georgian  period.  The  King  said  all  his  Bishops 
were  gentlemen  and  probably  they  were,  but  the 
visitor  to  the  great  hall  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford, 
adorned  with  so  many  portraits  of  her  distin- 
guished sons,  can  easily  pick  out,  by  their  full, 
rubicund  countenances,  the  appointees  of  the  Han- 
overian dynasty  from  the  older  divines  whose  faces 
wear  the  purified  livery  of  prayer. 

While  the  clergy  as  a  body  lived  moral  lives, 
yet  the  saintly  ideal  of  the  Priest's  life  was  lack- 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  15 


ing.  "The  patronage  lavished  upon  a  worldly- 
minded  clergy  stimulated  the  growth  of  Latitudi- 
narianism  in  doctrine  and  unspirituality  in  life." 
They  came  to  regard  the  Church  as  merely  a  hu- 
man institution.  They  had  little  apprehension  of 
the  sacredness  of  their  powers  or  their  ministerial 
priesthood.  Their  ideas  of  Eucharistic  doctrine 
differed  not  materially  from  that  of  Zwingli,  sel- 
dom rose  higher  than  that  of  Calvin.  Thus  in  this 
dark  age  of  England's  Church,  we  find,  along  with 
Clayton  and  Hoadley's  riotous  unbelief,  as  Dr. 
locale  has  said,  "a  Blackburne  running  his  career 
at  York,  and  a  Cornwallis  dancing  away  his  even- 
ings at  Lambeth,  till  George  III.  had  peremptorily 
to  interfere." 

The  spirit  of  the  age  aided  the  spiritual  paraly- 
sis. It  was  rationalistic.  Canon  Liddon  says: 
"The  eighteenth  century  was  marked  by  a  shallow 
common  sense."  Also,  the  hysterical  phenomena 
at  times  attending  Wesley's  preaching,  which  the 
good  man  said  he  did  not  know  whether  to  ascribe 
to  God  or  to  the  devil,  made  sedate  Churchmen 
dread  what,  imder  general  terms,  they  called 
enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm  became  synonymous 
with  piety  without  morality.    The  Archbishop  of 


16  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

Canterbury  counseled  the  famous  missionary, 
Heber,  on  leaving  for  his  work  in  India  to  preach 
the  Gospel  and  to  put  down  enthusiasm.  Moved 
by  this  fear  of  an  emotional  religion,  preachers 
confined  themselves  more  and  more  to  an  inculca- 
tion of  morality,  and  consequently  got  themselves 
labeled  as  "formalists,"  "dry-as-dusts,"  and  "legal- 
ists." The  received  ideal  sermon  of  the  period, 
as  described  by  Eobert  Hall,  was  "a  discourse  upon 
some  moral  topic,  clear,  correct,  and  argumenta- 
tive; in  the  delivery  of  which  the  preacher  must 
be  free  from  all  suspicion  of  being  moved  himself, 
or  of  intending  to  produce  any  emotions  in  his 
hearers."  Blackstone,  the  well  known  jurist,  has 
given  us  his  experience  of  the  pulpit,  when  he  came 
to  reside  in  London:  "As  to  its  morality,  it  did 
not  always  rise,  in  his  opinion,  to  that  of  Plato  or 
Cicero ;  and  as  for  the  religion,  it  was  difficult  to 
say  whether  the  preacher  believed  in  the  Koran, 
Confucius,  or  the  Bible." 

The  religious  decadence  expressed  itself  in  the 
neglect  of  the  Churches.  The  old  Church  build- 
ings of  England  were  thoroughly  Catholic,  and 
each  part  of  their  structure  proclaimed  some  doc- 
trine of  the  Nicene  Faith.    The  threefold  divi- 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL.  17 

sional  arrangement  into  sanctuary,  chancel,  and 
nave  bespoke  tlie  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Trinity. 
The  cross-form  of  the  Church  proclaimed  the  truth 
of  man's  redemption  through  Christ.  The  nave 
was  symbolical  of  the  ship  of  the  Church  passing 
through  the  waves  of  the  world ;  the  font,  near  the 
door,  of  our  entrance  into  the  ark  of  Christ's 
Church  by  Baptism.  The  chancel,  filled  with  the 
white-robed  choristers,  spoke  of  the  Church  in 
Paradise.  The  Altar  evidenced  the  fact  that  while 
Christ  was  reigning  in  glory,  He  was  yet  ever 
present  with  His  people.  All  this  had  faded  from 
the  spiritual  sight  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Sym- 
bolism lost  its  significance.  Worship  became  a 
lost  art. 

The  late  Beresford  Hope  thus  describes  the 
condition  as  existing  far  into  the  last  century: 
"The  aisles  were  utilized  by  certain  family  pews 
or  boxes,  raised  aloft  and  approached  by  private 
doors  and  staircases.  The  pulpit  stood  against  a 
pillar,  with  a  reading  desk  and  clerk's  box  beneath. 
There  was  a  decrepit  western  gallery  for  the  band, 
and  the  nave  was  crammed  with  cranky  pews 
of  every  shape.  The  whitewashed  walls,  the 
damp,  stone  floors,  the  high,  stiff  pews,  with  faded 


18  PUSEY  ASTD  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

red  curtains,  allotted  to  all  the  principal  houses 
and  farms  in  the  parish,  the  hard  benches,  without 
backs,  pushed  into  a  corner,  or  encumbering  the 
aisles,  where  the  poor  might  sit,  spoke  eloquently 
of  the  two  prevailing  vices  of  the  times — apathy 
and  exclusiveness.  The  grand  old  fonts  were  fre- 
quently removed  to  the  rectory  garden  to  serve  as 
flower  pots,  while  their  place  was  supplied  by  a 
small  stone  basin  standing  on  a  pedestal  in  some 
remote  corner  of  the  church.  In  the  place  where 
once  the  Holy  Altar  stood,  vested  in  fair  array, 
was  to  be  found  a  mean  table  with  a  moth-eaten  red 
cloth  upon  it.''  The  practice  of  daily  service  in 
town  churches  was  given  up.  Congregations  not 
infrequently  sat  through  the  Psalter  as  well  as 
through  the  Lessons.  In  the  ordinary  parish 
church,  chanting  was  unknown.  Public  catechis- 
ing in  the  afternoon  had  ceased.  Celebrations  of 
the  Holy  Eucharist  were  very  infrequent.  In 
most  parishes  it  was  celebrated  on  the  three  great 
Festivals  only.  We  read  that  in  St.  Paul's  Cathe- 
dral, on  Easter  Day,  1800,  there  were  only  six 
communicants,  and  at  the  only  celebration. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  Church  in  the 
eighteenth  century;  "Its  corporate  activity  de- 


PUSEY  AND  THE   CHUKCH  KEVIVAL.  19 

stroved  by  suppression  of  Convocation,  its  prac- 
tical energy  sacrificed  to  State  policy,  its  mission 
spirit  evaporated  by  Latitudinarian  leadership,  its 
conscience  dulled  by  the  repression  of  enthusi- 
asm;" its  very  life  blood  chilled  by  its  decay  of 
faith  and  its  loss  of  worship.  Was  it  possible  for 
these  dry  bones  to  live  ?  While  religious  bodies 
which  have  lost  the  Apostolic  ministry,  the  Priest- 
hood, the  gifts  of  Sacramental  grace,  necessarily, 
under  the  strain  of  never-ceasing  conflicts,  decay 
and  divide;  on  the  other  hand,  where  the  Priest- 
hood and  Sacraments  are  preserved,  there,  through 
the  abiding  Presence  of  Christ,  is  an  ever-present 
resurrection  power.  The  Church  might  slumber, 
but  she  could  not  die.  l^o  weapon  formed  against 
her  could  prosper,  the  gates  of  hell  could  not  pre- 
vail against  her.  As  in  times  past,  when  the 
Church  seemed  to  be  overwhelmed  by  the  tempest, 
Christ  had  manifested  Himself,  so  it  was  now. 
At  the  close  of  the  century,  moved  in  part  by  the 
tragic  I^emesis  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the 
wars  which  followed,  the  spiritual  perceptions  of 
Christians  were  quickened  to  the  discernment, 
amidst  the  thunderings  and  voices  and  showers  of 
blood,  of  man's  need  of  divine  succor  and  to  call 
upon  the  Master  who  seemed  asleep  in  the  Ship. 


20  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

Pirst,  there  arose  within  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, a  body  of  earnest  preachers  who  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Evangelicals.  Their  spiritual  pro- 
genitors were  Eomaine,  Henry  Venn,  Law,  Har- 
vey, John  ISTewton,  Kichard  Cecil,  Charles  Simeon. 
Under  their  leadership  the  Religious  Tract  Society 
and  the  Church  Missionary  Society  for  the  Evan- 
gelization of  Africa  and  the  East  were  founded. 
They  awakened  England  to  the  evils  of  the  slave 
trade,  which  was  abolished  in  1807.  In  1833, 
largely  by  the  exertions  of  those  known  as  the  Clap- 
ham  sect,  the  further  act  for  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  was  passed.  Under  their  teaching  per- 
sonal piety  revived.  The  characteristic  of  their 
preaching  was  a  vivid  presentation  of  Christ  cruci- 
fied. In  contrast  with  the  preceding  morality  and 
formalism,  the  Evangelicals  dwelt  largely  on  man's 
lost  condition,  his  deliverance  through  the  satis- 
faction made  on  Calvary,  and  the  need,  in  order 
to  its  individual  appropriation,  of  a  living  faith. 
They  were  somewhat  strict  in  their  discipline. 
They  assembled  frequently  in  each  others  houses 
for  Bible  expositions  and  prayers.  "To  be  relig- 
ious meant,  in  the  language  of  the  day,  to  fore- 
swear dancing  and  the  theater,  to  keep  Sunday 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL.  21 

strictly,  to  sit  under  a  popular  preacher,  to  be 
sober  in  dress  and  staid  in  manner,  and  to  be  in- 
terested in  foreign  missions." 

The  Low  Church  movement,  however,  was  not 
an  especially  learned  one.  It  was  not  necessary 
that  it  should  be.  Theologically,  it  had  to  dwell 
largely  on  the  subjective  side  of  religion.  It  was 
of  the  nature  of  a  St.  John  Baptist  awakening.  It 
preached  conversion  and  pointed  to  Christ.  It 
rapidly  increased  throughout  the  country  up  to 
the  year  1833.  Then  political  events  began  to 
force  the  Church  into  the  consideration  of  other 
portions  of  her  Creed.  A  supplementary  religious 
movement  began,  called  by  various  names — the 
Oxford,  the  Tractarian,  the  Catholic  Movement. 
I  have  called  it  a  supplementary  movement, 
for  it  was  supplementary  rather  than  antagon- 
istic to  that  which  had  preceded  it.  By  the 
laws  which  govern  human  thought,  we  are 
obliged  to  look  at  truths  both  in  their  subjective 
and  objective  aspects;  and  different  minds,  accord- 
ing to  their  temperament,  will  be  drawn  to  dwell 
more  exclusively  upon  one  than  the  other.  The 
Evangelical  theology  was,  in  its  application,  essen- 
tially subjective;  but  truth,  for  its  completeness, 


22  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

requires  to  be  supplemented  by  its  objective  side. 
The  Evangelicals  had  earnestly  proclaimed  the 
necessity  of  a  living  faith  in  Christ  and  His  sacri- 
fice. They  strove  to  bring  men  by  their  preaching 
under  the  conviction  of  sin,  to  make  then  an  act  of 
submission  and  trust  in  Christ's  promises,  and  to 
find  in  the  peace  that  ensued  an  assurance  of  ac- 
ceptance. It  was  an  earnest  presentation  of  Christ 
crucified  and  the  subjective  religion  in  which  emo- 
tion and  feeling  played  a  large  part. 

The  supplementary  movement  brought  out  the 
objective  side  of  religion.  Contradicting,  denying 
nothing  the  Evangelicals  asserted,  and  believing 
equally  with  them  in  the  necessity  of  a  true  con- 
version and  a  living  faith,  it  was  shown  that 
Christ's  Religion  came  into  the  world  not  merely 
as  a  proclamation  of  pardon,  but  in  the  way  of  an 
organization.  This  organization  was  something 
more  than  a  mere  aggregation  of  individual  be- 
lievers. It  was  not  a  voluntarily  formed  one  like 
a  human  society.  It  did  not  take  its  inception 
from  Roman  burial  guilds.  It  had  Christ  for  its 
Founder,  the  Apostles  for  its  authorized  Minis- 
ters, the  Sacraments  for  its  means  of  grace.  Yes, 
it  was  something  different  from  a  divine  society. 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL.  23 

It  was  more  even  than  an  organization.  It  was 
an  Organism.  An  Organism  is  something  that 
has  life  in  Itself  and  can  communicate  life.  It 
was  a  spiritual  living  Organism^  through  which 
Christ,  ever  present  in  it,  acted.  An  Organism  in 
which  the  Holj  Ghost  dwelt.  An  Organism  by 
whose  Ministry  and  Sacraments  the  life  and  light 
of  Christ  was  conveyed  to  individuals.  An  Or- 
ganism which  was  to  be  eternal  and  was  to  be  the 
Bride  of  Christ. 

The  two  schools  of  thought  thus  supplemented 
each  other.  But  at  first  this  was  far  from  being 
understood,  and  only  in  these  latter  times  is  becom- 
ing commonly  recognized,  as  high  Churchmen  and 
low  Churchmen  are  coming  together  in  more  lov- 
ing accord,  agreeing  to  differ  in  matters  of  opinion, 
members  of  one  common  household  of  faith, 
divided  as  the  waves,  but  one  as  the  ocean  is  one. 

II. 

It  would  be  profitable,  if  here  we  could  linger 
on  the  fascinatingly  interesting  period  of  the  in- 
ception of  this  movement,  and  its  rapid  progress 
between  the  years  1833  and  1845  by  means  of  pub- 
lished tracts   and  treatises;   on  the  healthful 


24  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

checks  it  met — "Our  checks,"  said  Pusey,  "have 
been  our  greatest  blessings" — on  the  sad  loss  of 
adherents,  the  trials  and  bitter  assaults  its  lead- 
ers sustained,  its  widening  influence  as  the  cen- 
tury went  on,  the  gradual  acceptance  by  the  larger 
portion  of  the  Church  to-day  of  the  principles  for 
which  it  stood. 

The  names  of  those  who  are  best  known  as 
influential  leaders  in  this  movement  are  those  of 
Keble,  Pusey,  and  JSTewman.  Concerning  the  one 
whose  name  is  published  in  connection  with  this 
treatise,  it  is  to  be  said  that  one  distinguishing 
characteristic  of  his  was  that  he  shrank  in  every 
possible  way  from  putting  himself  forth,  or  allow- 
ing himself  to  be  regarded,  as  a  leader.  The 
Church  is  full  of  the  history  of  those  who,  having 
gathered  followers  about  themselves,  have  led  them 
eventually  out  of  the  Church  into  a  schismatic  and 
sect  condition.  A  true  and  loyal  son  of  the 
Church,  ever  submissive  to  her  authority,  Pusey, 
in  the  spirit  of  deep  self-abnegation  and  humility, 
shunned  what  would  be  called  leadership.  Indeed, 
one  peculiarity  of  this  movement,  which  has  so 
revived  the  Church's  life,  and  brought  the  long- 
neglected  objective  side  of  truth  into  prominence, 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  25 

is  that  it  has  been  under  the  guidance  of  no  one 
man.  This  has  saved  it  from  disaster  in  times 
when  a  few  prominent  persons  fell  away,  and  has 
also  protected  it  from  the  narrowness  of  echoing 
any  one  man's  opinions.  God  raised  up  for  the 
blessing  of  the  English  Church  a  body  of  men 
learned  and  devout,  conspicuous  among  whom,  for 
the  vastness  of  his  learning,  and  saintliness,  was 
Pusey.  He  was  a  man  of  gigantic  learning,  vast 
acquirements,  intense  nature,  profoundly  spirit- 
ual ;  and  more  remarkable  for  the  sweetness  of  his 
nature  and  his  profound  humility. 

"I  had  known  him  well,"  said  JSTewman,  in  his 
'Apologia,  "since  1837,  and  had  felt  for  him  an 
enthusiastic  admiration.  I  used  to  call  him  Hhe 
Great.'  His  great  learning,  his  immense  diligence, 
his  scholar-like  mind,  his  simple  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  religion  overcame  me." 

He  was  born  in  the  year  1800.  At  the  age  of 
ten  years,  he  could  easily  have  passed  examination 
for  entrance  into  Oxford.  When  taking  his  de- 
gree, the  senior  examiner  predicted  his  greatness, 
and  always  considered  him  the  man  of  the  greatest 
ability  he  had  ever  examined  or  known.  He  had 
the  capacity  of  studying  sixteen  hours  a  day,  and 


26  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUKCH  REVIVAL. 

the  tenacity  of  his  memory  was  remarkable.  He 
pursued  his  theological  studies  in  Germany,  study- 
ing Oriental  languages,  and  attending  the  lectures 
of  Schleiermacher,  isTeander,  and  Hengstenberg. 
At  the  early  age  of  twenty-nine,  he  became  Regius 
Professor  of  Hebrew,  and  Canon  of  Christ  Church. 
One  feature  of  his  scholarship  was  the  exhaustive- 
ness  of  his  research  on  every  subject  with  which 
he  dealt.  His  mind  was  unsatisfied  until  he  had 
examined  all  that  could  be  known  relating  to  any 
matter,  and  all  arguments  for  or  against  any  ques- 
tion he  was  considering.  There  was  a  fixed  deter- 
mination, before  arriving  at  conclusions,  to  make 
his  investigation  thorough  and  complete.  He  has 
been  fairly  criticised  for  over-burdening  his  state- 
ments with  needlessly  accumulative  argumenta- 
tion. 

He  not  only  wrote  himself,  but  he  set  others 
to  work,  and  the  Church  is  indebted  to  him  for 
the  translations  of  the  Library  of  the  Fathers  and 
the  Library  of  Anglo-Catholic  theology.  The  work 
he  loved  most  was  the  interpretation  of  Holy 
Scripture;  and  his  Commentary  on  the  Minor 
Prophets,  for  its  learning  and  spiritual  insight, 
will  always  stand  in  the  first  rank  of  Comment- 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  27 

aries.  He  enriched  the  Church  with  many  devo- 
tional books,  but  it  would  be  impossible  to  enumer- 
ate, without  tediousness,  the  number  of  volumes  he 
gave  to  the  Church  on  matters  of  controversy  and 
doctrinal  questions.  Along  with  Pearson  and 
Hooker,  he  will  rank  as  one  of  the  greatest  Doctors 
of  the  English  Chiirch. 

Vast  as  was  his  learning,  he  had  none  of  the 
graces  of  the  pulpit  orator.  There  was  no  attempt 
in  his  composition  at  literary  finish  or  arrange- 
ment. It  was  little  relieved  by  aught  that  would 
strike  the  fancy.  But  the  neglected,  unpolished 
framework  was  vivified  by  his  burning  devotion 
to  God  and  souls.  "Each  sentence,"  says  Liddon, 
"was  instinct  with  his  whole  purpose  of  love  as  he 
struggled  to  bring  others  into  communion  with  the 
Person  of  Him  who  purified  his  own  soul.  It 
was  this  attribute  of  profound  reality  which  char- 
acterized his  discourse  from  first  to  last,  and,  as 
it  fell  on  the  superficial  and  somewhat  cynical 
thought  of  ordinary  academical  society,  at  once 
fascinated  and  awed  the  minds  of  men." 

Crowds  came  to  hear  him,  but  his  sermons  owed 
nothing  to  those  arts  and  accomplishments  which 
have  been  carried  to  their  greatest  perfection  in 


28  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

the  Churcli  of  Massillon  and  Bourdaloue.  He  had 
no  pliancy  of  voice,  no  command  over  accent  or 
time,  or  tone.  He  did  not  relieve  or  assist  the 
attention  of  his  audience  bj  changing  from  fast  to 
slow,  or  pausing  between  his  paragraphs,  by  look- 
ing off  his  page ;  his  eye  throughout  was  fixed  on 
the  manuscript  before  him  and  his  utterance  was 
one  strong,  unbroken,  intense,  monotonous  swing, 
which  went  on  with  something  like  the  vibrations 
of  a  deep  bell. 

As  he  moved  slowly  through  the  vast  crowds 
which  came  to  hear  him,  his  very  appearance  af- 
fected one.  We  can  almost  see  him  as  Dean 
Church  has  described  him.  "His  perfectly  pallid, 
furrowed,  mortified  face,  looking  almost  like 
jagged  marble,  iramovably  serene  withal,  and  with 
eyes  fixed  in  deep  humility  on  the  ground,'^  bore 
the  impress  of  that  other  world  in  which  he  so  con- 
stantly dwelt.  When  he  stood  up  in  the  pulpit, 
even  before  he  uttered  a  word,  you  felt  yourself 
in  the  presence  of  a  saint. 

His  theological  standpoint  was  that  of  a  Catho- 
lic. He  believed  in  the  One,  Holy,  Catholic, 
Apostolic  Church.  He  believed  it  was  the  ap- 
pointed guardian  of  Holy  Writ,  of  the  Faith, 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  29 

and  the  organ  through  which  Christ  proclaimed  it 
to  men.  All  that  had  been  taught  and  held  from 
the  beginning  and  by  all,  he  implicitly  believed. 

If  he  was  a  liberal  in  politics,  he  was  conserv- 
ative in  religion.  Great  as  was  his  intellect  and 
profound  his  learning,  before  the  Church,  which 
he  called  his  "dear  Mother,"  he  was  as  a  little 
child.  He  submitted  himself  entirely  to  her. 
The  writer  well  remembers  having  been  with  him 
on  one  occasion  after  the  Doctor  had  been  reading 
a  violent  attack  on  his  "Eirenicon;"  the  Doctor, 
placing  his  hands  behind  him,  as  he  was  wont, 
slowly  remarked,  "The  only  question  is,  what  has 
the  Church  of  God  said  ?" 

Unlike  his  dear  friend  ^N^ewman,  who  was  of 
a  speculative  mind,  and  passed  through  many 
forms  of  belief,  being  an  Evangelical,  a  Whately- 
ite,  a  High  Churchman,  eventually  a  Eoman, 
Pusey  was  always  stayed  on  authority.  The  voice 
of  God  came  to  him  through  the  Church,  and  this 
gave  grandeur  and  solidity  to  his  convictions. 

But  great  as  he  was  intellectually,  he  was 
greater  still  in  his  spirituality.  The  principles  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  ^ilount  he  practically  made  his 
own. 


30  PUSET  AM  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL. 

His  life  was  entirely  consecrated  to  the  glory 
of  God  and  tlie  service  of  J esus  Christ.  He  lived 
most  simply.  He  gave  largely  and  at  the  expense 
of  his  own  comfort.  He  bnilt  a  Church  at  his  own 
expense  at  Leeds;  the  only  inscription  referring 
to  the  donor  was  that  it  came  ^^from  a  penitent." 
He  gave  most  generously  to  the  building  of 
Churches  in  the  east  of  London.  His  bodily  dis- 
cipline was  excessive.  He  would  have  taken  the 
discipline  every  night  with  the  fifty-first  Psalm, 
only  his  confessor  would  not  let  him.  He  has 
been  known  not  to  break  his  fast  after  his  Maundy 
Thursday  communion  till  Easter. 

He  rose  daily  at  six,  commending  himself  to 
God.  He  used  a  hard  seat  by  day  and  a  hard  bed 
at  night.  He  would  never  wear  gloves  nor  protect 
his  hands.  He  traveled  poorly  as  possible  in 
third-  class  carriages,  excepting  when  health,  or 
pressure  of  time,  or  duty  to  his  mother  obliged  him 
to  do  otherwise.  He  ate  his  food  slowly  and  pen- 
itentially,  making  a  secret  confession  of  unworthi- 
ness  to  use  God's  creature  before  each  meal.  He 
abstained  from  wine  and  beer  unless  obliged  to 
use  them  by  order  of  the  physician.  He  mor- 
tified his  curiosity;  he  asked  himself  before  read- 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  31 

ing  anvthing  if  it  was  God's  will  he  should  read 
it.  He  never  set  aside  solid  work  to  read  news- 
papers or  letters.  "His  rules  about  the  use  of 
speech,"  said  his  biographer,  "will  explain  to  those 
who  remember  it  the  peculiarity  of  his  conversa- 
tion; its  profound  seriousness,  its  unexpected 
pauses  and  silences,  its  grave  and  charitable  pro- 
tests. He  determined  not  to  speak  of  himself  or 
his  work  whenever  he  could  help  doing  so;  to 
blame  another  only  after  asking  himself  the  ques- 
tion. Would  mj  Lord  have  me  say  it?  And  to 
accompany  the  blame  with  an  act  of  self-humilia- 
tion; he  softened,  if  possible,  any  unfavorable 
judgment  of  others  that  he  heard.  He  resolved 
always  to  give  way  in  argument  whenever  it  was 
not  a  duty  to  maintain  his  opinion;  to  interrupt 
no  one  else  when  speaking ;  to  stop  if  interrupted ; 
never  to  complain  of  anything  which  happened 
either  to  himself  or  to  the  Church,  since  his  own 
sins  were  the  cause  of  the  one  and  might  contri- 
bute to  the  other;  not  to  mention  bodily  pain 
except  as  an  explanation  of  silence  which  might 
be  misunderstood ;  to  address  every  one,  especially 
his  inferiors  in  rank,  as  his  superiors  in  the  sight 
of  God." 


32  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL. 

He  did  nothing  by  halves.    He  brought  all  his 
devotions  and  ministerial  work  under  the  domain 
of  penitential  rule.    If  you  ask,  Why  did  he  do 
this  ?    Had  he  ever  been  an  unbelieving  worldly- 
minded  man  ?    Was  he  like  an  Augustine,  repent- 
ing of  the  sins  of  his  youth  ?  the  answer  is  "JSTo." 
He  had  grown  up  almost  like  a  Samuel.    He  had 
a  most  profound,  awful,  supernatural  sense  of  the 
holiness  of  God,  and  the  pitiable,  weakened,  and 
imspiritual  condition  of  the  English  Church.  God 
had  such  great  designs  for  her.    How  feebly  she 
was  realizing  it!    As  the  Saints  of  old  had 
mourned  for  their  people,  and  the  prophets  had 
girded  themselves  with  sackcloth,  so  did  Pusey 
gird  himself  with  the  robe  of  penitence.  "He 
would  join  in  intercessions  as  ^unfit  to  be  heard 
for  any  one in  the  Gloria  Patri,  and  Pater  Noster 
as  'unworthy  to  take  on  my  lips  the  I^ame  I  have 
so  dishonored in  profession  of  duty  in  the  Psalms 
as  Vhat  I  would  do,  but  the  contrary  of  what  I 
have  done;'  in  the  responses  after  the  Command- 
ments as  to  'pray  for  the  conversion  of  the  worst 
sinners — myself  chief;'  in  thanksgiving  'to  thank 
God  I  am  not  in  hell ;'  and  in  my  Absolutions  that 
the  devil  did  not  enter  into  me  altogether  as  he  did 
into  Judas." 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  33 

He  prayed  God  to  enable  him  to  pray  before 
each  break  in  the  service,  at  the  beginning  of 
Psalms,  Canticles,  before  the  Creed,  the  Lessons, 
three  times  in  the  Litany,  immediately  after  any 
distraction,  and  then  to  try  to  throw  his  whole  soul 
into  the  prayers.  He  would  repeat  the  penitential 
Psalms  when  walking  alone;  he  prayed  for  some 
grace  at  every  Communion,  and  to  be  watchful  to 
treasure  it,  and  first  of  all  for  humble  penitential 
love.  He  prayed  God  daily  if  good  for  him,  to 
give  him  sharp  bodily  pain,  and  His  grace  in  it. 

The  same  spirit  was  carried  into  his  minis- 
terial work.  He  did  everything  in  the  spirit  of  a 
penitent.  He  would  aim  with  commencing  every 
ministerial  act  with  confession  that  he  was  so  unfit 
to  be  a  minister  of  God.  Another  rule  was,  "Always 
in  taking  his  place  in  the  Cathedral,  or  on  going 
to  the  Altar,  to  make  an  act  of  humiliation,  as  one 
who  ought  to  be  shut  out  from  it" — the  first  should 
be  last.  Another  rule  was,  "To  hear  all  the  very 
worst  confessions,  very  penitentially,  as  worse  my- 
self." "In  undertaking  any  plan  to  pray  that  it 
be  not  marred  through  my  sins ;  to  aim  to  offer  all 
acts  to  God  and  to  pray  for  His  grace  in  them  be- 
fore commencing  them — as  conversations,  while 


34  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUKCH  REVIVAL. 

people  are  coming  into  tlie  room,  or  before  I  enter 
a  room,  each  separate  letter  which  I  write,  each 
course  of  study,  and  in  the  course  of  each  if  contin- 
ued long." 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
what  he  imposed  upon  himself  he  thought  wise  for 
others.  The  Elijahs,  John  Baptists,  the  Chrysos- 
toms,  a  Basil,  an  Ambrose,  a  St.  Francis  Assissi, 
a  Bernard,  a  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  the  Kens,  the 
Wilsons,  the  Andrewes  and  Puseys  have  laws  of 
their  own. 

"All  the  world  cannot  and  should  not,"  says 
Liddon,  "wear  a  hermit's  garb  and  live  austerely ; 
but  the  example  of  the  Baptist  is  not  therefore  less 
valuable,  as  a  reformer  of  society  no  less  than  as  a 
saint  of  God,  for  men  of  all  nations  and  of  all 
times." 

What  a  life  he  led !  What  trials  he  underwent ! 
What  heart-breaking  sorrows  he  endured  1  Early 
he  lost  his  wife.  His  saintly  daughter  was  taken 
from  him  at  the  time  he  looked  to  her  to  found  a 
Religious  house  and  work  of  mercy.  His  son  was 
deformed.  Slander  never  ceased  to  assail  him. 
He  was  called  a  Jesuit,  a  Romanizer,  disloyal  to 
his  Church,  the  teacher  of  soul-destroying  heresies. 


PUSET  AJTD  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL.  35 

The  hatred  of  theological  opponents  obtained  an 
unjust  and  illegal  censure  on  one  of  his  sermons, 
and  he  was  suspended  from  preaching  in  the  Uni- 
versity pulpit  for  three  years.  He  quietly  sub- 
mitted. The  doctrines  he  taught  were  misrepre- 
sented. All  the  inbred  hatred  and  unreasoning 
prejudice  against  Rome,  latent  in  the  English 
mind,  was  stirred  up  against  him.  In  the  strange 
panics  which  would  ensue,  Bishops  fulminated 
charges  against  doctrines  which  were  Catholic  and 
enshrined  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Men 
got  discouraged.  E"ewman's  mournful  apostrophe 
as  he  left  found  an  echo  in  many  hearts :  "0  my 
mother,  whence  is  this  unto  thee,  that  thou  hast 
good  things  poured  upon  thee  and  canst  not  keep 
them,  and  bearest  children,  yet  darest  not  own 
them."  The  heart  of  Pusey  was  again  and  again 
saddened  by  the  defection  of  friends.  ISTo  wonder 
that  in  dark  hours,  under  injustices  and  condemna- 
tions, some  despondent  ones  fell  away.  'Not  least 
among  all  the  pain  and  bitter  heartache  of  Pusey'a 
penitential  life,  was  the  loss  of  one  whom  he  loved 
as  David  loved  Jonathan.  But  through  all  these 
multiplied  trials,  like  some  great  rock,  abiding  un- 
moved amidst  the  hurtling  storms  and  madden- 


36  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

ing  waves,  Pusey  never  wavered  in  his  loyalty  and 
trust  in  the  Anglican  Church.  He  knew  God  was 
with  her  and  in  her.  God  had  not  deserted  her  in 
her  days  of  neglect  and  coldness;  and  He  would 
not  give  her  up,  he  said,  now  that  she  was  on  her 
knees.  His  unchangeableness,  his  constancy,  un- 
conquerable faith,  his  intense  loyalty  to  the  Eng- 
lish Church  as  a  branch  of  the  one  Catholic  Body, 
steadied  the  hearts  of  men  in  troublous  times  and 
saved  the  Anglican  Communion. 

III. 

What,  we  now  ask  were  the  principles  of  this 
movement  ?  In  the  teaching  presented  by  its  lead- 
ers, the  Incarnation  held  a  prominent  place. 
Many  Churchmen,  following  the  view  of  Anselm 
and  Calvin  had  made  it  but  a  needful  condition  of 
the  Atonement.  In  order  to  suffer,  it  was  neces- 
sary God  should  take  upon  Himself  human  nature 
in  which  to  suffer.  He  came  primarily  to  suffer 
and  die  to  redeem  and  save  mankind.  Such  a  view 
it  is  perfectly  allowable  for  any  to  take  and  great 
theologians  have  done  so.  The  Tractarians  for  the 
most  part,  held  to  the  Eastern  and  grander  view 
that  the  Incarnation  was  a  predetermined  outcome 


PUSEY  A^B  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 


37 


of  God's  act  of  creation.  They  held  that  the 
Incarnation,  the  joining  the  human  and  Divine 
natures  together,  was  the  consummation  of  crea- 
tion. Erom  the  very  beginning,  God  had  pro- 
posed, through  the  Incarnation,  to  unite  all  things 
both  in  heaven  and  earth  in  Himself,  and  so  ele- 
vate the  creature  into  a  further  and  closer  union 
with  God.  It  was  not  fitting  to  suppose  that  this 
greatest  and  grandest  act  of  God  should  have  been 
dependent,  as  the  opposing  view  made  it,  upon  the 
sin  of  the  creature.  God  did  not,  so  they  held, 
become  Incarnate  therefore  because  man  had 
sinned,  but  the  sin  of  man  had  not  hindered  the 
original  purpose  of  God.  This  view  also  is  within 
the  pale  of  orthodoxy. 

Here,  too,  we  may  notice  two  different  views  of 
the  Atonement.  Some  following  the  audacious 
conception  popularized  by  Milton  that  God  the 
Father  demanded  justice  and  the  Eternal  Son 
mercy  had  regarded  Calvary  as  a  propitiation 
made  by  suffering  to  an  angry  Father.  But  there 
can  be  no  such  opposition  in  the  Blessed  Trinity, 
and  this  conception  is  now  almost  universally  re- 
pudiated. Others  regarding  the  Incarnation  as 
the  primal  intent  of  God  which  man's  sin  could 


38  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

not  hinder,  looked  upon  Calvary  as  the  consum- 
mate act  of  loving  obedience,  an  obedience  to  death, 
which  was  propitiatory  by  doing  away  with  the 
moral  barrier  which  hindered  the  free  action  of 
an  ever-loving  God  toward  His  creature.  For 
the  creature  must  acknowledge  his  fault  and  sub- 
mit himself  ere  God  can  with  safety  for  the  crea- 
ture's own  good,  bless  and  treat  him  as  He  would. 
Each  of  these  views  is  doubtless  imperfect  as  any 
human  conception  of  the  Atonement  must  neces- 
sarily be.  But  the  necessity  of  an  Atonement  is 
held  by  High  and  Low  Churchmen  alike.  God 
deals  with  us  not  only  as  individuals,  but  collect- 
ively as  a  race.  And  only  one  whose  sinlessness 
could  make  the  offering  of  Himself  acceptable  and 
whose  Divine  I^ature  could  give  an  infinite  value 
to  it  could  make  an  Atonement  for  all  mankind. 
At  the  foot  of  the  Cross  all  Churchmen  are  one. 

ISTecessary  then  as  it  was  for  the  Incarnate  One 
to  die  on  Calvary  to  make  there  an  atonement  for 
the  fallen  creature  with  whose  lot  He  had  identi- 
fied Himself,  man's  salvation  was  not,  however, 
to  be  wrought  by  his  mere  faith  and  trust  in  that 
transaction,  but  by  a  saving  incorporation  into  the 
Incarnate  and  Crucified  One.    Two  distinct  and 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHTJECH  REVIVAL.  39 

separate  sheddings  therefore  were  there  of  the 
Precious  Blood.  That  for  our  redemption  pre- 
vious to  the  ^'It  is  finished'^  and  that  after  for  our 
restoration  from  the  open  side.  For,  as  Eve  was 
taken  from  the  side  of  Adam,  so  was  the  Bride, 
which  is  the  Church,  to  be  taken  from  the  side  of 
Christ.  She  was  to  be  bone  of  His  Bone  and 
flesh  of  His  Flesh,  and  be  a  partaker  of  His  Divine 
IN"ature. 

Thus,  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Church  as  the  extension  of  It  became  the  founda- 
tion of  the  revival.  As  a  consequence  the  revela- 
tion which  God  has  made  to  man  was  placed  upon 
a  more  secure  and  logical  foundation.  It  had  been 
customary  for  all  the  sectarian  bodies  to  base  their 
teaching  exclusively  upon  a  book.  Their  founda- 
tion principle  was  that  the  revelation  which  God 
had  made  of  Himself  to  man  was  the  Bible.  This 
Book,  they  claimed,  was  written  by  its  various 
authors  under  the  direct  inspiration  of  God. 
Many  held  that  the  writers  were  mere  mechanical 
instruments  for  recording  the  words  given  them 
by  the  Almighty.  This  system  was  embarrassed 
with  the  difficulty  of  giving  any  satisfactory  reason, 
without  calling  upon  the  authority  of  the  Church, 


40  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

for  the  acceptance  of  the  several  books  of  which 
the  Bible  is  composed.  It  was  a  greater  logical 
difficulty  to  demonstrate  the  inspiration  of  it 
And  when  it  came  to  its  interpretation,  the  diver- 
gent opinions  of  a  hundred  sects  proved  the  futil- 
ity of  independent  individual  interpretation. 
Modern  discoveries  and  critical  examinations  of 
authorship  and  text  are  fast  sapping  the  founda- 
tion of  the  theory  of  the  "Bible  and  the  Bible 
only."  'Now,  in  contrast  with  this  discredited  sys- 
tem, which  bases  its  belief  on  a  Book,  the  Church 
teaches  us  that  God  has  revealed  Himself  to  us  in 
a  Person.  In  contrast  with  the  Protestantism 
which  makes  religion  rest  on  a  book,  the  Church 
m^akes  it  rest  upon  the  Person  of  Christ.  It  ia 
true  that  the  revelation,  which  God  has  made  of 
Himself  to  man,  and  of  man's  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities has  been  made  through  various  channels 
and  in  many  ways,  and  adapted  from  the  beginning 
to  the  degree  of  man's  intelligence,  and  has  been 
gradual  and  progressive.  It  has  been  made  through 
man's  intelligence,  understanding,  imagination, 
conscience,  spiritual  nature.  It  has  been  made 
through  thinkers,  philosophers,  poets,  prophets, 
seers,  in  all  nations  and  all  times.    It  has  been 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUKCH  REVIVAL.  41 


made  with  clearer  illumination,  greater  certitude, 
far-reaching  spiritual  vision,  through  the  Hebrew 
race.  It  is,  however,  all  one  revelation  of  God, 
made  through  nature  to  man  and  in  man  himself, 
until  at  last  the  revelation  became  consummated 
and  perfected  in  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  fulness  of 
time,  the  Eternal  Word  or  Keason  of  God  wrapped 
round  Himself  our  human  nature,  and  the  Divine 
Light  and  Life  shone  forth  through  Him  on  the 
sons  of  men.  It  is  thus  on  Christ,  not  on  a  book, 
our  religion  is  based.  Eirst  and  foremost  the 
Tractarians  made  Christ  their  basis  and  Christ 
was  their  all-in-all. 

The  next  distinguishing  principle  of  the  Re- 
vival was  its  Rule  of  Faith. 

We  mean,  by  that,  the  rule  or  way  by  which  all 
the  followers  of  Christ  are  to  know  what  is  essen- 
tial for  them  to  believe  and  do.  'Now  it  is  obvious 
that,  if  Christ  is  the  revelation  of  God  to  man.  He 
must  have  left  some  one  way  by  which,  with  reason- 
able certainty,  those  who  desire  to  be  His  disciples 
should  know  what  they  were  to  do  and  believe. 
Distracted  as  many  are  in  their  pursuit  of  religious 
truth  by  the  babel  of  conflicting  sects,  they  must 
admit,  if  they  could  but  discern  Christ's  method 


42  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

of  solving  the  problems  which  concern  their  im- 
mortal destiny,  such  a  method  must  be  the  best, 
and  the  wisest  and  the  safest  one  to  follow. 

What  then  was  the  method  Christ  established 
for  our  knowing  His  truth?  For  the  last  three 
centuries  sectarianism  has  proclaimed  that  the 
true  way  of  learning  Christ's  religion  was  by  the 
study  of  the  Bible.  The  formula  which  they  were 
never  tired  of  repeating  was,  "The  Bible  and  the 
Bible  only  the  religion  of  Protestants."  Every 
truth  seeker  was  to  prayerfully  peruse  its  pages, 
and  by  the  covenanted  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  he 
would  arrive  at  the  truth.  The  babel  of  conflict- 
ing voices  on  matters  essential  has  proved,  how- 
ever, the  futility  of  this  rule  and  made  men  heart- 
sick. Moreover,  it  is  evident,  it  is  not  the  way  es- 
tablished by  Christ.  If  He  had  wished  that  by 
such  means  His  truth  was  to  be  made  known,  it 
would  have  been  as  easy  for  Him  by  His  Almighty 
power  to  have  paper  and  printing  invented  in  the 
first  century  as  in  the  fifteenth.  The  fact  that  He 
did  not  do  so  shows  that  it  was  not  by  the  individ- 
ual study  of  the  Bible  each  person  was  to  come  by 
himself  to  the  knowledge  of  Christian  truth. 
What  Christ  did  was  to  establish  a  Church  whose 


PUSET  AXD  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAE.  43 

duty  it  was  to  preserve  and,  in  His  iTaine,  teach 
the  truths  God  made  known  to  man  through  Him. 
The  Church  teaches,  the  Bible  confirms.  By  the 
abiding  gift  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  that  Church  was 
to  preserve  the  truth  from  age  to  age,  defining  its 
dogmas  as  heresies  arose,  and  by  her  united  utter- 
ance throughout  the  ages  proving  her  faithfulness 
to  her  trust.  She  speaks  with  paternal  authority 
to  the  illuminated  reason  and  conscience  of  her 
children.  Thus,  against  an  individual  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Scripture  and  the  supremacy  of  private 
judgment,  the  Tractarian  upheld  the  truth  that 
Christ  had  made  the  Church  the  Keeper,  Guard- 
ian, and  Proclaimer  of  His  Gospel. 

In  reply  to  the  speculative  and  rationalistic 
spirit  which  pointed  to  the  progress  made  every- 
where in  arts,  literature,  learning  and  science,  and 
declared  that  religion  must  also  advance  in  order  to 
keep  in  touch  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  it  was 
replied  that  a  vast  chasm  separated  the  revealed 
from  all  other  kinds  of  truth.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  apprehension  of  all  other  kinds  of 
truth,  depending  as  they  do  upon  observation  and 
experiment,  must,  as  the  ages  go  on,  increase  and 
develop  to  the  better  well-being  of  man.    But  the 


44  PUSEY  Ajq-D  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL. 

revelation  which  God  made  to  us  in  Christ  was 
made  once  and  once  for  all.  It  was  not  man^s  dis- 
covery, nor  did  it  depend  on  his  observation  or 
experiment,  but  it  was  the  gift  of  God.  It  was 
given  in  and  through  Christ,  once  for  all  and  for 
all  time  and  for  all  mankind.  To  His  Apostles 
Christ  gave  His  Holy  Spirit  to  lead  them  into  all 
truth,  bringing  to  their  remembrance  all  they  had 
heard  from  Him.  The  Apostles  declared  that 
"they  had  not  shimned"  to  declare  to  those  who  suc- 
ceeded them  in  office  "the  whole  counsel  of  God." 
The  faith  thus  delivered  by  them  has  under  the 
Spirit^s  guidance  been  summed  up  in  the  Creeds, 
set  forth  in  action  by  the  Sacraments,  embalmed  by 
the  churches  in  her  liturgies,  and  declared  by  the 
common  utterance  of  united  Christendom.  While 
therefore,  it  is  no  objection  in  every  other  depart- 
ment of  knowledge  that  a  thing  is  new,  because  as 
the  ages  go  on  man  must  make  progress,  yet  in  re- 
ligion, seeing  it  is  revealed  by  Christ  primarily 
and  once  for  all,  any  proposed  truth,  which  has 
not  the  marks  of  antiquity,  universality,  and  con- 
sent upon  it,  could  not  have  come  from  the  Master, 
and  is  necessarily  false.  While  error  may  thus 
be  detected,  the  truth,  revealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit 


PUSEY  AI^-D  THE  CHTJECH  REVIVAL.  45 

speaking  authoritatively  through  the  Church  to 
the  illuminated  reason  and  spiritual  understand- 
ing of  its  members,  is  confirmed  by  its  results. 
They  come  not  only  to  believe  in  a  Creed  but  in 
God,  and  not  only  to  believe  in  Him  but  to  know 
Him — Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost — for  He 
dwells  in  them  and  they  in  Him.  Thus  the  Tract- 
arians'  principle  was  that  the  Church,  indwelt 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  the  living  organ  of  the  reve- 
lation of  the  Light  and  Life  made  by  God  in  Christ 
to  man. 

Another  feature  of  the  Tractarian  teaching  had 
regard  to  the  ministry.  It  startled  an  Erastian 
age  bent  on  degrading  the  Church  to  a  mere  State 
establishment  by  proclaiming  its  true  spiritual 
character.  It  was  not  from  man  or  by  man  the 
authority  and  power  of  the  clergy  came.  They 
were  ambassadors  of  Christ,  clothed  with  His 
authority.  They  were  something  more  than 
preachers  of  righteousness,  but  stewards  entrusted 
with  divine  mysteries  or  sacraments.  The  com- 
mission that  clothed  them  with  authority  to  speak 
and  act  in  Christ's  ^^ame  could  be  historically 
traced  to  the  Apostles  and  so  to  Him.  The  power 
that  made  them  "able  ministers  of  the  Word,"  was 


46  PUSEY  AND  THE   CHUECH  REVIVAL. 

the  same  Holy  Spirit  that  had  descended  at  Pen- 
tecost and  had  never  left  the  Church. 

Naturally  opposition  was  aroused  from  the 
Erastian  quarter  and  from  the  Puritan  one. 
Within  the  Church  there  was  also  much  theological 
controversy  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry and  its  powers,  and  the  mode  of  their  trans- 
mission. But  to-day,  as  the  result  of  unfettered 
discussion  together  with  a  growing  desire  for  the 
sake  of  the  common  cause  for  a  better  understand- 
ing, a  great  reproachment  if  not  concord  has  been 
effected.  'No  one  can  read  Dr.  Moberly's  Minis- 
terial Priesthood  without  recognizing  its  modera- 
tion and  balanced  wisdom,  or  wonder  that  Profes- 
sor Sanday,  a  representative  of  a  different  school 
should  profess  himself  satisfied  with  it.  It  argues 
well  for  that  unity  so  much  to  be  desired  when 
men  so  eminent  find  themselves  at  one. 

It  has  been  helpful  in  this  matter  to  note  more 
discriminately  than  formerly  how  Christ  commis- 
sioned the  ministry  that  was  to  represent  Him. 
The  process  was  a  long  one.  It  had  reference  to 
His  own  life  and  ministry.  His  ministerial  life 
was  divided  in  three  parts.  There  was  His  pub- 
lic life,  when  He  was  in  an  especial  manner  ex- 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  47 


ercising  His  prophetical  office.  Then  followed 
the  period  when  as  Priest  and  Victim  He  offered 
Himself  up  on  Calvary.  Finally,  during  the 
great  forty  days  He  as  Victor  over  death  and  hell 
manifests  His  Kingly  power. 

'Now  in  each  of  these  periods  He  began  to  asso- 
ciate the  Apostles  with  His  special  office  and  com- 
mission them.  When  He  was  exercising  His 
prophetical  office  as  the  teacher  of  the  world,  He 
clothed  them  in  a  degree  with  it  and  said.  Go  and 
teach. 

When  He  was  entering  on  His  great  high 
priestly  function,  after  the  significant  inaugura- 
tion into  their  office  by  the  feet  washing,  He 
authorized  them  to  offer  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice 
as  a  Memorial  of  His  death,  saying :  "Do  this  in 
remembrance  of  Me/'  Having  won  His  victory 
as  a  King,  He  gives  them  jurisdiction  in  all  nations 
and  bids  them  gather  disciples  into  the  Kingdom, 
baptizing  them  in  the  ISTame  of  the  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost.  As  it  belongs  to  sovereignty  to 
pardon  as  well  as  to  grant  citizenship,  it  was  at 
this  time,  breathing  on  them.  He  said :  "Whoseso- 
ever sins  ye  remit  they  are  remitted,  and  whoseso- 
ever sins  ye  retain  they  are  retained." 


48  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUKCH  REVIVAL. 

Thus  were  the  Apostles  gathered  into  fellow- 
ship with  Christ's  three  offices  of  Prophet,  Priest, 
and  King.  But  as  yet  they  were  only  parts  of  a 
structure  not  yet  vivified,  of  a  Temple  not  yet 
Spirit-endowed,  of  a  body  not  yet  quickened  with 
life.  On  Pentecost  the  Holy  Spirit  that  filled  and 
sanctified  the  whole  Body,  making  it  a  Ministerial 
one  and  all  its  members  Kings  and  Priests  unto 
God,  consecrated  and  empowered  the  Apostles  for 
their  special  functions  in  that  Body.  They  were 
then  made  '^able  ministers  of  the  Word,"  i.e., 
enabled  to  do  those  things  which  Christ  had  com- 
missioned them.  In  this  way  the  Apostolic  Order 
or  College  was  founded.  Thus  the  Church  came 
into  being  complete  with  Christ  as  its  Head  and 
th  Holy  Ghost  as  its  Indweller,  and  the  Apos- 
tolic Order  as  its  Ministry.  But  it  had  no 
written  constitution.  It  was,  however,  a  liv- 
ing Organism  and  must  grow.  Some  might 
assign  its  growth  to  mere  natural  causes,  others 
might  refer  it  to  the  laws  of  evolution  and  cor- 
respondence to  environment.  Others  would  say 
that  as  the  Holy  Spirit  dwelt  within  the  Church 
and  Divine  Providence  orders  all  things,  it  was 
by  the  Divine  action  the  three  Orders  were  formed. 


PIJSEY  AXD  THE  CHUECH  EEVIYAL.  49 

First,  as  need  arose  the  Order  of  Deacons  was 
created,  tlien  that  of  the  Presbyters,  finally  as  the 
Church  extended  and  troubles  arose  and  the  Apos- 
tles were  passing,  the  higher  Order  of  Bishops. 
So  it  was  that  pressed  by  external  circumstances 
and  guided  by  the  Spirit  within,  theApostles  gath- 
ered, by  laying  on  of  hands  and  prayer,  others 
into  different  degrees  of  fellowship  with  them- 
selves, and  so  sharers  with  themselves  in  the  Triple 
offices  of  Christ.  And  as  thus  guided,  we  find 
at  Jerusalem  the  local  Church  possessed  of  its 
resident  and  permanent  Apostle  with  its  presby- 
ters and  deacons,  so  as  the  Church  extended  into 
all  lands  it  gradually  conformed  itself  to  the  type 
given  by  God  in  the  Mother  Church. 

What  Pusey  brought  out  was  the  divine  char- 
acter and  authorization  of  the  Christian  ministry 
in  its  threefold  orders.  While  the  validity  of  any 
other  than  an  episcopal  ordained  ministry  is  open 
to  serious  objection  (and  our  Church  recognizes 
no  other),  yet  it  might  be  charitably  admit- 
ted that  a  prophetical  office,  if  this  is  all  that 
sectarians  seriously  claim,  might  be  exercised  by 
license  and  not  by  ordination.  However  this  may 
be,  yet  apart  from  technical  questions  all  Church- 


50  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

men  can  loyally  and  lovingly  meet  together  in  the 
belief  that  an  apostolic  ordination  is  needful  for 
our  being  gathered  into  union  with  their  fellow- 
ship and  so  with  the  commissioned  powers  given 
to  the  Apostles  by  Christ. 

Another  principle  of  the  Tractarians  was  the 
value  of  the  Sacraments.  The  initial  sacrament 
is  Baptism.  This  first  engaged  their  attention. 
The  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Prayer 
Book  was  thought  to  be  quite  plain  that  Baptism 
conveyed  a  gift.  It  took  men  out  of  their  old  rela- 
tion to  God  and  made  them  members  of  the  Body 
of  Christ.  Eaith  and  repentance  were  the  neces- 
sary conditions  for  a  beneficial  reception  on  the 
part  of  an  adult.  Infants  were  fit  recipients,  for 
as  they  had  committed  no  sin  there  were  no  sins 
to  be  repented  of,  and  as  they  had  not  raised  their 
wills  against  God,  there  was  no  need  by  an  act  of 
submission  and  faith  to  take  them  down.  The 
infant  was  in  a  passive  state  and  thus  capable  of 
receiving  a  gift  as  Christ  had  showed  by  taking 
them  up  in  His  Arms  and  blessing  them.  The 
adult  by  faith  and  repentance  becomes  a  fit  recipi- 
ent by  thereby  putting  himself  in  the  position  of 
the  little  child.  We  must  become  like  little  chil- 
dren in  order  to  enter  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL.  51 

In  contrast  Tvith  the  Baptism  of  John,  the 
Church  teaches  that  Christian  Baptism  conveys  a 
spiritual  gift.  The  Baptism  of  the  forerunner 
was  not  Christian  Baptism.  It  was  not  in  the 
name  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  for  that  IsTame  had 
not  then  been  revealed.  It  conveyed  no  spiritual 
gift  for  the  Spirit  had  not  then  been  given.  It 
was  only  an  outward  sign  of  repentance  on  the  part 
of  those  who  received  it.  It  was  called  "the  Bap- 
tism of  repentance."  The  Christian  sacrament 
on  the  other  hand  is  said  to  convey  a  gift  from  Him 
who  gave  the  sacrament  and  it  is  called  from  the 
gift  it  conveys,  a  Baptism  "for  the  remission  of 
sins." 

This  is  strikingly  brought  out  in  the  case  of  St. 
Paul.  He  was  powerfully  converted  on  his  way 
to  Damascus.  But  were  his  sins  remitted  when 
he  was  converted  ?  The  Scripture  says  they  were 
not.  For  after  he  had  come  to  Damascus  the 
prophet  Ananias  came  to  him  and  said,  "Brother 
Saul,  arise  and  be  baptized  and  wash  away  thy 
sins."  It  thus  appears  that  his  sins  were  not  for- 
given at  his  conversion  but  by  his  subsequent 
Baptism. 

However  clear  this  and  numerous  other  pas- 


62  PUSEY  AIS'D  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

sages  in  Holj  Scripture  are,  and  in  Sadler's 
Church  Doctrine  Bible  Truth,  they  are  well  set 
forth,  great  commotion  was  raised  by  this  teaching. 

It  was  said  that  the  lives  of  many  of  the  bap- 
tised did  not  show  that  any  change  had  taken  place 
for  the  better,  and  that  this  doctrine  of  baptismal 
regeneration  was  a  soul  destroying  one  and  produc- 
tive of  false  peace.  And  so  we  believe  it  is  if  per- 
sons rest  their  hope  of  final  acceptance  on  the  mere 
fact  that  they  have  been  baptized  or  confirmed  or 
taken  the  Sacrament. 

In  respect  of  Baptism  it  must  be  ever  kept  in 
mind  that  unless  we  are  truly  converted  and  be- 
come "new  creatures"  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  no  outward  observances  will  be  of  any  avail. 
The  Tractarians  therefore  most  earnestly  preached 
faith,  repentance,  and  conversion. 

The  truth  seems  to  be  this :  that  an  adult  com- 
ing to  Baptism  must,  like  St.  Paul,  be  converted 
first  and  so  coming  the  acceptance  and  peace  he  haa 
will  be  sealed  to  him,  he  will  also  receive  the  re- 
mission of  sins,  and  be  made  "a  member  of  Christ, 
a  child  of  God,  and  an  inheritor  of  the  Kingdom 
of  heaven. The  case  of  infancy  is  this :  the  in- 
fant does  not  need  faith  or  repentance  to  enable 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  53 

it  to  receive  a  gift.  It  can  be  grafted  into  the 
body  of  Christ's  Churcli,  and  receive  a  seed  prin- 
ciple of  that  new  nature  that  Christ  imparts.  For 
in  the  spiritual  order  as  in  the  natural  one  life  pre- 
cedes consciousness.  The  gift  implanted  if  neg- 
lected comes  to  naught.  The  gift  becomes  active 
and  there  is  a  conscious  birth  of  the  spirit  when 
the  necessary  subsequent  conversion,  which  may  be 
gradual  or  otherwise,  takes  place. 

Sectarians  had  looked  upon  the  Sacraments 
chiefly  as  symbols  or  signs — symbols  of  what 
Christ  had  done  for  them,  or  signs  and  pledges  of 
His  mercy  and  love.  They  were  not,  in  their 
view,  as  the  Church  has  ever  taught  channels  of 
grace.  They  were  only  badges  of  a  Christian 
man's  profession,  a  doctrine  our  Articles  deny. 
Baptism  conveyed  nothing  to  the  recipient,  a  the- 
ory our  Baptismal  service  repudiates.  Baptism 
was  only  a  proclamation  of  what  the  child  was  by 
birth,  or  a  mere  proclamation  of  God's  favor.  Its 
favorite  illustration  was  the  coronation  of  a  king, 
who  is  a  King  before  he  is  crowned,  a  view 
which  fails  to  recognize  the  difference  between 
our  state  by  nature  and  that  by  grace.  Holy 
Communion  was  only  a  touching  remembrance  of 


54  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL. 

the  death  of  Christ.  The  Christian  Sacraments 
were  thus  placed  on  the  low  level  of  Jewish  or- 
dinances.   They  were  signs,  not  sacraments. 

'No  wonder,  so  regarded,  they  fell  into  neglect, 
and  persons  argued  that  if  this  was  all  they  were, 
they  could  be  as  good  Christians  without  as  with 
them.  But  Pusey  and  those  with  him  showed  how 
this  was  to  degrade  and  empty  Christianity  of  its 
high  purpose,  which  was,  not  only  to  forgive  man, 
but  to  restore,  re-create,  transform  his  nature,  and, 
inoculating  it  with  Christ's  own  Humanity,  elevate 
it  into  a  new  union  with  God.  This  was,  as  we 
have  said,  the  grand  purpose  and  object  of  the  In- 
carnation. Christ  came  not  to  be  a  mere  teacher, 
illuminator,  example-giver,  sin  and  death  de- 
stroyer, but  the  Head  of  a  New  Creation,  into 
whom  we  being  incorporated  and  "made  partakers 
of  the  Divine  Nature,"  were  finally  to  be  further 
united  in  glory  with  God. 

The  Sacraments,  therefore,  were  not  mere 
empty  signs,  but  "effectual"  ones,  as  our  Articles 
declare.  That  is,  they  effect  in  those  who  devoutly 
and  rightly  receive  them  what  they  signify.  By 
Baptism,  our  sins  are  remitted  and  we  receive  the 
seed-principle  of  a  new  nature,  become  "members 


PUSET  AXD  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  55 


of  Christ,  children  of  God,  and  inheritors  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven."  By  Absolution,  pardon 
for  onr  post-baptismal  sins  is  assured  to  us,  and 
the  soul  fortified  by  renewing  grace.  By  the  gift 
in  Confirmation,  we  are  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  promise,  and  receive  the  anointing  of  the  Lord 
which  makes  all  in  their  degree,  kings  and  priests 
unto  Him.  In  the  Holy  Eucharist,  Christ  Him- 
self :  His  true  Body  and  Blood,  Soul  and  Divinity 
are  verily  and  indeed  present  and  He  gives  Him- 
self to  the  faithful  recipients. 

Thus  in  contrast  with  those  systems  which 
looked  upon  Christ  as  a  mere  historic  Person, 
whose  Life  we  were  to  read  about,  words  treasure, 
example  follow,  and  death  believe  in, — ^tho 
Church's  system  brings  us  into  union  with  a  liv- 
ing and  present  Lord.  He  still  abides  with  us, 
and,  through  the  agencies  of  His  Church,  is  in  the 
world  extending  the  loving  acts  of  His  visible  min- 
istry to  the  poor  and  needy;  enlightening  the 
blinded  spirits ;  curing  the  fevered  hearts ;  restor- 
ing the  withered  lives ;  cleansing  the  leprous  souls ; 
raising  the  dead  in  trespasses  and  sin.  In  con- 
trast, then,  with  what  we  may  call  the  sectarian 
system,  which  bids  men  look  back  to  a  dying 


56  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

Christ,  the  Church  presents  us  with  an  abiding  and 
living  Lord  enshrined  in  His  Church  and  still 
going  about  doing  good.  He  speaks  through  His 
priests  and  acts  through  His  Sacraments.  His 
Word  faithfully  preached  has  a  convicting  and 
converting  power  by  the  accompanying  aid  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Would  that  all  preachers  were  alive 
to  the  sacramental  character  of  their  preaching 
and  so,  subordinately  to  the  Gospel  and  Holy 
Spirit,  delivered  the  Word!  So  also  the  sacra- 
ments are  the  Word  in  action  and  communicate  to 
the  penitent  and  faithful  Light  and  Life.  Just  as 
the  believer  in  the  supernatural  believes  in  God 
and  comes  to  find  and  know  Him  in  himself,  so  the 
sacraments  demonstrate  to  the  faithful  the  reality 
of  the  Life  and  Presence  of  Christ  they  communi- 
cate. As  the  existence  of  God  has  no  fuller  proof 
than  this  double  proof  of  testimony  and  experi- 
ence, we  must  either,  as  believers  in  the  supernat- 
ural, accept  the  testimony  of  the  millions  of  Cath- 
olic Christians  as  to  the  efficiency  of  the  sacra- 
ments, and  the  gifts  they  convey,  or  deny  the  super- 
natural and  so  God  altogether.  Miserable  end  to 
which  rationalism  within  and  without  the  Church 
invariably  leads. 


PirSEY  AXD  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL.  57 

In  this  connection  we  must  dwell  on  two  prom- 
inent doctrines  which,  at  the  time  and  since,  have 
provoked  controversy.  One  was  the  Real  Objec- 
tive Presence  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist  the  other 
Confession.  We  should  not  be  doing  justice  to  the 
memory  of  these  men  or  Dr.  Pusey  if  we  omitted 
to  set  forth  their  views  on  these  subjects. 

First,  as  to  Christ's  Presence  in  the  Eucharist. 
The  basic  idea  of  this  view  is  that  our  Blessed 
Lord,  the  God-Man,  is  ever  present  in  the  spiritual 
body  which  is  His  Church.  He  is  the  centre  of  it 
just  as  the  sun  is  the  centre  of  our  solar  system. 
By  virtue  of  the  union  with  the  Divine  IN'ature, 
which  is  everywhere.  He  can  make  His  Humanity 
manifest,  wherever  He  will.  He  does  not  have  to 
move  from  one  place  to  another  in  order  to  do  this. 
St.  Stephen  saw  the  heaven  opened  and  Jesus 
standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  St.  Paul  saw 
and  conversed  with  Him  on  the  Damascus  road. 
At  the  Consecration  of  the  Sacred  Elements, 
Christ,  invisibly  present  with  His  people,  does  now 
through  His  Priests,  who  are  His  agents,  what  He 
did  when  visibly  present  with  His  Apostles  at  the 
Institution  of  the  Sacrament.  Then,  taking  the 
Elements  into  His  hands,  He  said  of  one,  "This  is 


58  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL. 

My  Body;"  and  of  the  other,  "This  is  the  I^ew 
Testament  in  My  Blood."  He  gathered  them  by 
that  act  of  His  out  of  the  realm  of  the  natural 
order  into  union  with  Himself.  He  did  not,  you 
notice,  naming  two  things,  contrast  them,  saying, 
"This  tread  is  My  Body :  This  wine  is  My  Blood." 
If  He  had  so  spoken  then  we  might  have  argued 
that  the  bread  only  represented  the  Body,  and  the 
wine  represented  the  Blood.  Again,  He  did  not  say 
"This  is  not  Bread  but  is  My  Body."  Then  the 
Bread  would  have  ceased  to  exist  save  to  sense,  and 
His  Body  taken  its  place.  What  He  did  was  simply 
to  name  that  which  He  took  and  held  in  His  hands. 
He  named  it  from  that  it  became  by  His  engifting. 
He  said,  ''This/'  which  he  held,  "is  My  Body, 
This  is  My  Blood."  ISTow  when  God  names  any- 
thing it  is  different  from  man's  naming  a  thing. 
When  man  names  a  thing  he  simply  pastes  a  label 
on  it,  he  only  puts  it  in  a  category  of  other  like 
things.  But  when  God  names  a  thing.  His  nam- 
ing is  a  creative  act.  He  makes  it  what  His  word 
declares  it  to  be.  Thus,  the  Church  holds  that  the 
elements  are  not  empty  signs  or  symbols  but,  by 
virtue  of  Christ's  word,  are  the  Sacrament  of  His 
very  Body  and  Blood. 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  59 


What,  it  has  been  asked,  is  the  difference  be- 
tween this  teaching  and  that  of  the  Roman 
Church?  One  and  essential  difference  is  this: 
The  Roman  Communion  has  defined,  according  to 
the  terms  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  how  the 
bread  is  changed  into  the  Body  of  Christ,  and  how 
the  wine  is  changed  into  His  Blood,  and  makes  this 
definition  of  the  manner  an  essential  of  the  faith, 
while  the  Catholic  Church  states  the  fact  but  leaves 
the  manner  a  mystery. 

But  is  not  this  Presence,  it  is  sometimes  asked, 
a  spiritual  Presence?  Certainly  it  is.  The 
whole  transaction  from  first  to  last  is  one  effected, 
not  in  the  material  universe,  but  in  the  spiritual 
imiverse,  in  the  Mystical  Body  of  Christ.  It  is 
wrought,  not  by  any  known  law  of  nature,  but  by 
the  spiritual  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  this 
sense,  everything  concerning  the  Sacrament  is 
spiritual.  The  Glorified  Body  of  our  Lord  which 
is  Present,  true  and  real  as  it  is,  is  a  Spiritual 
Bodv :  as  He  Himself  declared  when  He  said  that  ^^i^ 
the  things  that  I  have  been  talking  to  you  SLhout,  ^^^ff^f 
namely.  My  Body  and  My  Blood — "they  are  spirit 
and  they  are  life"  (St.  John  vi.  63).  The  sphere 
in  which  this  Presence  is  manifested,  being  the 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 


Body  of  Christ,  is  a  spiritual  body.  The  power  by 
which  the  Body  of  Christ  is  manifested  in  any  part 
of  the  Church  is  a  Divine  or  spiritual  power.  The 
persons  to  whom  Christ  is  thus  manifested  are 
Christians  who  have  been  gathered  out  of  the  nat- 
ural order  into  the  spiritual  order,  and  are  in 
the  mystical  Body.  While  the  Church  thus  de- 
clares that  That  which  is  present,  and  the  sphere 
of  His  Presence,  and  the  power  by  which  the 
Presence  is  effected,  and  the  persons  to  whom  the 
Presence  is  made  known  are  all  spiritual,  she  does 
not  thereby  deny  that  the  Body  and  Blood  of  our 
Lord  present  is  a  real  body,  and  is  not  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Consecration  objectively  present  to 
the  faithful. 

Those  who  have  grasped  the  idea  that  the 
Church  is  a  spiritual  organism,  and  Christ  has  not 
to  move  in  order  to  present  Himself  in  any  portion 
of  it,  can  then  have  no  difficulty  in  believing  that 
Christ  may  verily  and  indeed  be  present  in  the 
Eucharist.  And  those  who  take  our  Lord's  words 
in  their  natural  and  literal  significance  have  no 
question  but  they  effect  what  they  signify.  The 
point  the  controversy  has  turned  upon  is  whether 
Christ  is  simply  present  in  the  heart  of  the  faithful 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL.  61 

recipient,  or  whether  He  is  present  by  virtue  of  the 
act  of  Consecration.  The  two  difficulties  to  man's 
reason,  the  one  of  His  presence,  the  other,  of  that 
presence  depending  on  a  human  agency,  belong  to 
both  views.  It  is  just  as  difficult  to  believe  Him 
present  in  the  heart  of  the  believer  as  to  believe 
Him  present  in  the  Sacrament.  Just  as  difficult 
to  believe  Him  present  by  the  act  of  the  believer's 
faith  as  by  the  priest's  act  of  consecration.  It 
would  seem,  however,  more  in  accordance  with  His 
dignity  that  Christ's  presence  in  the  Eucharist 
should  be  dependent  upon  His  own  ordained  action 
through  His  authorized  agents,  than  upon  the  un- 
certain, varying  degrees  of  faith  of  the  receiver. 
It  certainly  is  of  more  comfort  and  assurance  to 
the  humble  or  disturbed  or  distracted  or  faint- 
hearted. It  is  moreover  as  seemingly  illogical  to 
say  that  God  is  present  in  nature  to  those  who  be- 
lieve Him  to  be  there  and  not  by  His  own  act  of 
immanence,  as  to  say  that  Christ  is  present  in  the 
Eucharist  by  the  faith  of  the  receiver  and  not  by 
the  act  of  Consecration.  These  varying  views  of 
the  Eucharist  were  prevalent  in  the  English 
Church  during  the  progress  of  her  Reformation, 
but  finally  the  Church  solemnly  pronounced  be- 


62  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

tween  the  conflicting  schools  bj  adding  in  1604  to 
the  Catechism  the  portion  relating  to  this  Sacra- 
ment. There  she  declared,  in  conformity  with  the 
universal  teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church  through- 
out the  world,  that,  while  there  was  "the  outward 
visible  sign,''  the  inward  part  was  "the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ"  which  was  not  only  received  but 
"taken  and  received  by  the  faithful."  She  has 
thus  put  her  seal  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  real  ob- 
jective presence  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist. 

The  other  doctrinal  question  with  which  Dr. 
Pusey's  name  is  so  closely  associated  is  that  of 
Confession.  This,  probably,  aroused  more  antag- 
onism than  even  the  doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence. 
It  is  a  subject  on  which  fanaticism  and  passion 
may  easily  be  aroused,  and  they  have  been  skil- 
fully excited  by  opponents  to  the  utmost  degree. 

What!  it  has  been  asked,  can  a  man  forgive 
sins?  The  idea  is  impious.  God  only  can  for- 
give. What !  shall  we  put  the  human  soul  again 
under  the  bondage  of  designing  priestcraft  ?  Shall 
we  run  the  risk  of  having  the  minds  of  our  sons 
and  daughters  and  relatives  contaminated  by  evil 
suggestions  of  low-minded  priests  ?  Is  it  not  far 
better  for  the  souFs  moral  growth  to  be  left  free 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHUKCH  EEYIVAL.  63 


than  to  depend  upon  the  direction  of  fallible,  and 
it  may  be  designing,  directors  ?  Denunciations, 
such  as  these  and  many  other  of  like  kind,  the  pro- 
duct of  inflamed  party  spirit,  were  incessantly 
hurled  at  Dr.  Pusey  and  those  who  sympathized 
with  him.  It  is  one  thing,  as  our  Lord  found, 
to  meet  argument  which  appeals  to  reason  and 
Scripture,  another,  to  cope  with  passion  and 
prejudice. 

But  in  Christ's  dear  ]^^ame  and  for  His  sake, 
let  us  try.  Confession  is  at  times  a  bitter  medi- 
cine. While  the  Eoman  Church  has  enforced  it 
upon  all  her  members  as  a  matter  of  discipline,  the 
Anglican  Church  has  left  it  to  the  free,  voluntary 
action  of  her  children.  Until  one  is  a  true  peni- 
tent and  possessed  with  a  generous  desire  to  make 
reparation  to  his  Lord,  he  will  not  use  it.  There 
is  little  likelihood  in  our  day  that  it  will  ever  be- 
come widely  prevalent.  It  is  indifference  not 
over-devotion  we  have  to  meet. 

It  is  certainly  beyond  dispute  that  God  only 
can  forgive  sins.  It  is  equally  beyond  dispute  that 
this  power  was  committed  to  Jesus  Christ  and  exer- 
cised by  Him.  For  when  His  unbelieving  oppo- 
nents taunted  Him  with  the  question,  ^^Who  can 


64  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL. 

forgive  sins  but  God  only?''  the  Divine  Master, 
working  a  miracle  that  they  might  know  it,  declared 
that  "the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to  for- 
give sins."  He  then  gathered  the  Apostles  into 
union  with  His  own  office  and  coramanded  them 
as  His  agents  to  act  in  His  JSTame.  Breathing 
upon  them,  with  whom  and  their  successors  He 
promised  to  be  to  the  end  of  the  world.  He  said, 
"Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit,  they  are  remitted  unto 
them;  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they  are 
retained."  True  it  is,  then,  no  man  or  priest  can 
by  his  own  power  forgive  sins ;  but  may  he  not  be 
the  commissioned  agent  of  conveying  Christ's 
pardon  to  penitents  ?  It  is  our  Lord  and  our  Lord 
only  who  forgives,  and  the  priest  is  but  the  tele- 
phonic instrument  through  whom  His  voice  is 
vt.«»^ujt>  transmitted.  To  the  impenitent  it  conveys  naught 
— to  the  penitent  it  conveys  the  assurance  of  for- 
giveness and  healing  and  strength.  After  our 
Lord  had  forgiven  the  penitent  He  had  healed,  He 
gave  a  further  blessing,  saying :  "Go  in  peace,  thy 
faith  hath  made  thee  whole." 

There  will  always  be  those  so  satisfied  with 
their  own  spiritual  condition  as  not  to  feel  the 
need,  or  have  the  desire,  for  the  personal  assurance 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL.  65 

of  pardon  which  the  priestly  Absolution  brings ; -/"^ 
but  there  will  always  be  those  drawn  now,  as  pen-rj'*^'*'*^^ 
itents  were  of  old,  to  His  feet,  who  long  to  have^./,i^^ 
His  word  spoken  individually  to  themselves:  son  ii^ru-y^ 
or  daughter,  "Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee ;  go  in    '  ^  ' 
peace."    True  it  is  that  it  might  be  enfeebling  to 
character  to  put  oneself  under  the  direction  of 
another  mind  in  the  duties  and  business  of  life. 
But  Dr.  Pusey  and  those  with  him  have  pointed 
out  the  great  difFerence  between  a  confessor  and  a 
director  of  souls.    What  we  are  speaking  of  is 
confession,  not  direction.   And  concerning  confes- 
sion the  Church  of  England  has  delivered  us  from 
those  evils  which  may  arise  in  a  system  which 
makes  confession  compulsory.  ^^^T^y 

It  has  sometimes  been  asked.  Why  does  not  it 
suffice  for  me  to  make  my  confession  privately  to 
God  alone?  Why  do  it  in  the  presence  of  His 
priest?  One  reason  is  this,  and  it  rests  on  the 
fact  of  the  Incarnation:  Before  the  Incarnation, 
my  sins  were  acts  done  against  the  invisible  God. 
Since  the  Incarnation  and  the  gift  of  the  Spirit, 
they  are  acts  done  against  my  Incarnate  Lord. 
By  our  sins  we  now  repeat  the  tragedy  of  Calvary, 
and  crucify  that  Lord  afresh.    Men  rightly  feel 

.  .1 


66  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL. 


that  had  they  lived  before  the  Incarnation,  they 
might  have  made  their  act  of  acknowledgment 
privately  and  hiddenly.  But  now,  since  the  Incar- 
nation, that  spirit  of  honor  in  men  which  de- 
mands that  they  make  their  acknowledgment  ac- 
cording to  the  nature  of  their  offense  is  not  satis- 
fied by  a  confession  to  the  Invisible  God.  It  is 
against  the  Man,  Christ  Jesus,  they  have  sinned, 
and  they  must  go  to  those  who  represent  Him. 
Thus  they  fulfil  the  promptings  of  honor  and  love.  — 
They  go  also  for  strength.  For  the  grace  of  Abso- 
lution not  only  seals  pardon,  but  cleanses  the  soul, 
removes  the  stains  of  sin,  repairs  the  injuries  done, 
fills  one  with  confidence  and  trust,  fortifies  the 
soul  against  future  temptation.  This  is  the  testi- 
mony of  those  who  have  used  this  means  of  grace. 
In  comparison  with  their  testimony  what  are  the 
criticisms  and  carpings  and  insinuations  of  those 
who  have  not  tried  it  worth  ? 

And  yet  a  higher  reason  for  its  use  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Person  of  Christ.  He  loves  to  for- 
give. He  is  never  tired  of  forgiving.  He  loves 
to  forgive  more  and  more.  He  bought  the  right 
at  the  cost  of  His  Passion.  He  rejoices  in  every 
exercise  of  it.    Every  act  of  new  trust  gladdens 

.1  . 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  67 

His  heart.  Every  fresh  Absolution  more  and 
more  cleanses,  beautifies,  adorns  the  soul.  While 
the  world  hates  confession,  and  Satan  fears  it,  the 
Divine  heart  rejoices  with  every  fresh  applica- 
tion of  His  absolving  grace.  It  was  this  Pusey 
preached.  It  is  the  teaching  of  the  Prayer  Book. 
The  teaching  of  our  Church  is  this:  The  power 
of  Absolution  is  inherent  in  every  Priest;  the 
privilege  of  using  that  gift  is  the  right  of  every 
penitent  soul. 

IV. 

Having  thus  spoken  of  the  theological  prin- 
ciples of  the  Movement,  let  us  conclude  with  treat- 
ing of  its  spirit.  These  words  will  declare  it  to 
us :    Union,  Work,  Holiness,  Worship. 

Pusey  felt  most  deeply  that  Christianity's 
greatest  weakness  lay  in  a  divided  Christendom. 
It  was  this  that  laid  needless  burdens  on  the  laity 
in  support  of  Christianity.  We  can  but  feel  this 
in  our  own  country  where,  in  small  towns,  are  to 
be  found  a  number  of  rival  bodies,  few  capable  of 
financially  maintaining  themselves.  We  can  but 
feel  it  acutely  when  Christianity  in  its  divided 
aspect  presents  itself  to  the  heathen  world.  We 


68  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

all  know  that  these  rents  in  Christendom  must  be 
painful  to  the  heart  of  Christ.  We  must  know 
that  the  effective  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
cheeked  and  baffled  by  Christian  divisions. 

While  we  all  believe  that  every  baptized  person 
is  a  member  of  the  Church,  nevertheless  we  must 
grieve  that  this  inward  unity  is  not  expressed  in 
outward  form.  Oh,  how  the  Church  of  God  would 
go  forward  if  we  were  united  as  one  great  army  I 
How  would  not  the  Holy  Ghost's  power  manifest 
itself  through  a  body  that  was  all  of  one  heart  and 
one  mind !  The  great  heart  of  Pusey  long  strug- 
gled and  prayed  for  union.  His  object  was  to 
show  how  all  could  be  gathered  into  an  outer  one- 
ness and  a  united  effort. 

Surely  it  must  be  wrong  for  us  to  allow  our 
prejudices,  or  party  spirit,  or  contentedness,  or 
personal  opinions  to  hinder  union.  Why  should 
anything  more  be  required  for  Church  membership 
than  belief  in  the  essentials  expressed  in  the  an- 
cient Creeds?  Why  not  accept  such  form  of 
Church  government,  which,  while  preserving  the 
ancient  historical  ministry,  recognizes  the  priest- 
hood and  kingship  of  all  members  of  the  body  and 
secures,  in  all  diocesan  and  parish  organizations, 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  EEVIVAL. 


69 


the  rights  of  the  laity  ?  Under  the  impulse  of  this 
desire  for  re-union,  the  Anglican  Church  has  made 
approaches  both  to  the  Eoman  and  the  great  Greek 
and  Eussian  Church  on  the  one  side;  and  to  her 
children,  the  Congregationalists,  Presbyterians, 
Baptists,  and  Methodists,  who  have  gone  out  from 
her,  on  the  other.  She  makes  them  with  full  rec- 
ognition of  her  own  shortcomings,  and  the  acknowl- 
edgment that,  while  she  has  much  to  give,  she  has 
also  much  to  receive  from  them. 

0 !  Christian  friends,  whose  hearts  must  have 
been  sometimes  touched  with  the  melancholy  aspect 
of  our  divided  Christianity,  shall  we  not  hear  the 
pleadings  of  our  Divine  Master,  praying  with 
agonized  entreaty  that  all  may  be  outwardly,  as 
they  are  inwardly,  one ;  and,  laying  aside  prejudice 
and  cultivating  charity,  endeavor  with  all  our 
hearts  to  further  the  Divine  purpose  ? 

The  next  watchword  of  the  Movement  was 
Work.  The  old  Evangelicals  had  chiefly  been  re- 
ligious exhorters,  bidding  men  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  They  sought  to  save  men's  souls 
and  secure  to  them  an  eternal  felicity.  The 
Movement,  of  which  Dr.  Pusey  was  the  centre, 
sought  the  elevation  of  mankind  and,  filled  with 


70  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

the  love  of  God,  it  glowed  with  an  enthusiasm  for 
humanity.  It  declared  that  all  men  were  equal 
before  God,  and  strove  to  make  the  sittings  in  the 
churches  free.  It  called  upon  the  clergy  to  live 
higher  and  more  self-sacrificing  lives.  Parish 
houses,  workingmen's  clubs,  schools  of  all  kinds — 
night  and  industrial — Church  homes,  penitentia- 
ries, refuges,  guilds,  religious  orders,  deaconesses, 
sisterhoods,  all  the  machinery  of  the  modern  par- 
ish came  into  existence.  More  churches  were  re- 
stored and  built  during  this  century  than  since  the 
time  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Lives,  talents,  position, 
wealth  have  been  consecrated  in  home  and  foreign 
missionary  work  with  such  self-sacrifice  and  aban- 
donment as  recalls  the  fervor  of  Pentecostal  days. 
The  Church  is  all  aglow  with  enterprises  amelior- 
ating the  condition  of  labor,  making  all  classes, 
rich  and  poor,  feel  their  interdependence,  and 
their  duties  one  to  another.  This  great  Movement 
has  been  especially,  not  only  a  clerical,  but  a  lay- 
man's work;  and  England's  great  statesmen  like 
Gladstone  and  !N"orthcote,  her  great  lawyers  like 
Selborne  and  Anderson,  her  noted  merchants  like 
Hubbard  and  Glenn,  men  of  high  social  rank  like 
the  President  of  the  English  Church  Union,  and 


PTJSEY  a:xd  the  church  eevivae.  71 

laymen  of  humbler  position,  heads  of  societies, 
guilds  and  workingmen's  clubs,  have  all  been  filled 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  work.  Let  us  go  out  of 
ourselves  and  live  for  other  men. 

0 !  Christian  friends  and  brothers,  as  we  read 
the  lives  of  these  great  devoted  Churchmen  and 
servants  of  Christ,  shall  not  our  hearts  be  stirred 
afresh  within  us  to  do  something  more  for  the 
!Master's  sake,  and  press  on  the  Kingdom  ? 

The  third  element  of  the  Tractarian  spirit  was 
the  inculcation  of  Holiness.  From  the  beginning, 
the  Tractarians  illustrated  in  their  own  lives  the 
spirit  of  sanctity.  They  preached  repentance, 
dedication  to  duty,  consecration  to  the  Master's 
service.  They  taught  men  by  their  own  example 
how  to  lead  more  holy  and  interior  lives.  Men 
have  been  dra^Ti  under  other  systems  to  the  Cross 
of  Christ  and  by  a  penitential  trust  have  found 
peace  in  Him.  But  there  are  higher  gifts  of  the 
Gospel  than  those  of  acceptance,  assurance  of  sal- 
vation, and  its  peace.  There  are  other  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  than  those  which  accompany  ac- 
ceptance. There  is  a  union  with  the  Incarnate 
Lord  and  an  extension  within  His  members,  of  the 
very  virtues  which  possessed  His  soul.  Christian 


72  PUSEY  AI^D  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

meekness,  hmnilitj,  spirit  of  prayer,  fortitude, 
zeal,  unselfishness,  self-sacrifice  may  be  the  exten- 
sion in  us  of  the  same  activities  which  were  in 
our  Lord.  Transforming  union,  which,  while  we 
go  about  our  daily  tasks,  sheds  upon  us  the  Light 
of  Heaven,  which  lifts  us  into  union  with  the 
Divine ! 

O,  Christian  friends  and  brothers  and  souls, 
dear  to  our  Lord,  shall  we  rest  satisfied  with  our 
present  attainments?  Hungering  and  thirsting 
after  righteousness,  for  the  fuller,  higher,  richer 
Christian  life,  shall  we  fail  to  use  any  means  of 
grace  the  Master  has  left  us  for  our  profit  ?  Shall 
old-time  associations  keep  us  from  entering  into 
the  full  spiritual  privileges  which  belong  to  us  as 
Christians  and  which  the  Church  enshrines  ? 

O,  if  there  be  any  noble  feeling  of  dissatisfac- 
tion within  any  of  you,  if  you  feel  that  your  pres- 
ent religious  environment  has  done  for  you  all  it 
can,  if,  like  followers  of  some  teacher  who  like  St. 
John  Baptist,  led  you  to  Christ,  you  feel  you  need 
something  more  for  your  soul's  health,  will  you 
not  make  all  Christ's  gifts  your  own  ? 

Lastly,  Worship.  Worship  is  the  highest  act 
of  man's  nature.    It  is  no  idle  indulgence  of  feel- 


PUSEY  AXD  THE  CHUECH  EEVIVAL.  73 

ing  or  emotion.  It  calls  on  all  the  energies  of  his 
being,  his  intellect,  heart,  and  will;  and  in  it  is 
to  be  found  man's  greatest  joy,  for  it  is  communion 
with  God  Himself.  How  bleak  and  desolate  and 
barren  was  the  worship  of  the  Church  as  the  Puri- 
tan and  Protestant  left  it!  He  defaced  God's 
Dwelling  place,  and  in  his  iconoclastic  zeal,  broke 
down  the  images  and  sacred  places  with  axes  and 
hammers.  Through  fear  of  idolatry,  he  banished 
everything  of  beauty  in  the  worship  of  God.  He 
made  the  Sunday  service  consist  chiefly  in  listen- 
ing to  a  sermon  or  providing,  when  it  became  stale, 
some  Sunday  evening  entertainment.  But  man,  a 
religious  being  and  formed  for  worship,  requires 
some  richer  and  nobler  form  to  express  his  homage 
to  the  Almighty.  All  that  God  has  endowed  him 
with,  skill  of  architecture,  beauty  of  color  and 
painting,  carved  work  of  figure  and  statue,  the 
harmonies  and  glories  of  music,  all  must  be 
brought  into  requisition  that  man  may  express  His 
praise.  Por  not  alone  does  man  enter  into  the 
sacred  Temple,  but  with  the  eye  of  faith  he 
realizes  that  the  living  and  the  dead  make  one  com- 
munion. The  Angels  and  Saints  are  round  about 
him,  and  so  with  Angels  and  Archangels,  he  must 


74  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHURCH  REVIVAL. 

utter  his  Trisagion  and  cry,  "Holy,  Holy,  Holy, 
Lord  God  of  Hosts." 

Sometimes,  one,  drawn  to  love  the  stately  dig- 
nity of  the  Church's  worship,  asks  in  a  humble 
state  of  inquiry,  "Where  do  you  find  the  authority 
for  it  ?  True,  God  ordered  such  a  worship  in  the 
Old  Dispensation,  and  nothing  has  ever  exceeded 
the  glory  of  the  Temple  worship;  but  in  the 
Gospels  I  only  see  the  humble  carpenter  of  ITazar- 
eth  clothed  in  a  garb  of  poverty,  going  about 
preaching  from  hillside  or  tossing  boat,  and  so 
breaking  the  bread  of  life  to  the  famishing  multi- 
tude. Where  do  you  find  your  authority  for  your 
vestments,  and  lights,  and  incense,  and  glorious 
music,  and  pomp,  and  splendor  of  your  services  V 

The  answer  the  Church  makes  is  simple  and,  to 
the  humble  and  devout  mind,  a  satisfactory  one. 
As,  after  God  had  delivered  Israel  from  Egypt, 
He  took  Moses  up  into  the  Mount  and  showed  him 
the  pattern  of  the  Heavenly  Worship,  and  it  be- 
came the  directory  of  the  J ewish  Church,  so,  after 
the  True  Moses  had,  as  is  recorded  in  the  Gospel, 
prepared  the  way  and  led  His  people  out  from 
Judaism,  then,  after  His  Ascension,  God  took  St. 
John  up  into  Heaven  and  showed  again  the  pat- 


PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL.  Y5 

tern  of  the  Heavenly  Worship  and  it  became  again 
the  Church's  directory  for  all  time.  There  upon 
the  Altar  Throne  filled  with  living  light,  arched 
by  the  protecting  bow  of  the  Covenant,  radiant 
with  all  the  colors  of  His  Attributes,  St.  John 
beheld  the  Lamb  as  It  had  been  slain.  He  saw 
the  High  Priest  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  golden 
candle-sticks,  clothed  with  His  priestly  vestments 
and  girt  about  with  a  golden  girdle.  There,  too, 
was  the  angel  of  the  Covenant  offering  the  golden 
censer  with  much  incense  in  front  of  the  Altar, 
before  the  great  white  Throne,  where  the  seven 
lamps  of  sacred  fire,  even  in  the  presence  of  the 
dazzling  splendor  issuing  from  the  Incarnate  God, 
bum  in  the  eternal  noonday.  He  saw  the  crowned 
elders  of  the  Heavenly  hierarchy  prostrate  them- 
selves, and  cast  their  crowns  in  mystic  adoration, 
midst  the  harpings  and  hymnings  of  the  white- 
robed  choir,  as,  standing  on  the  sea  of  mingled 
glass  and  flame,  they  antiphonally  responded  one 
to  another,  and  accompanied  the  Divine  liturgy 
with  their  hallelujah  anthem  and  credo  and  thrice- 
holy  hymn. 

O  dear  Christian  souls,  let  us  in  these  days  of 
struggle  with  the  malific  forces  of  unbelief,  close 


76  PUSEY  AND  THE  CHUECH  REVIVAL. 

up  our  divided  ranks.  Let  us  return  to  the  ancient 
ways  of  Church  government  and  Catholic  Eaith. 
Let  us  live  lives  more  wholly  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  J esus  Christ,  and  by  a  worship  formed 
after  the  pattern  of  the  heavenly  worship,  offer 
to  God  something  more  worthy  of  His  Divine 
Majesty,  and  become  more  fit  to  take  part  in  that 
worship  of  heaven,  where  He  is  worshipped  in 
Spirit  and  in  Truth. 


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